Perez Codex William E Gates

LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
GIFT OF
x-^.
Class
MAR 29 1911 GIFT
Commentary upon
the Maya-Tzental
Perez
With
Linguistic
a
Codex
the
Concluding Note upon

of
Problem
the
Maya Glyphs
BY
William E. Gates
Professor
in
School
of
Antiquity,
International
Theosophical
Headquarters,
Point
Loma,
California
Point
Loma,
California
1910
With
the
Regards
of the
Author
Commentary upon
the Maya-Tzental
Perez
Codex
the
With a Concluding Note upon

Linguistic
Problem
of
the
Maya Glyphs
BY
William E. Gates
Professor
in
School
of
Antiquity,
International
Theosophical
Headquarters,
Point
Loma,
California
Point
Loma,
California
1910
Copyrighted,
1910, by William E. Gates
THE ARYAN THIOSOPHICAL PR ESI

Point Loma, California
I
<d
*r"
f~
o
S
f
NOTE
following paper was written for separate publication, with the view of summarizing some of the data afforded by the problems connected with the Maya glyphs, and also bearing
THE
upon the evolution of language-forms in their relation to hu man history it has however, upon the suggestion of Professor F. W. Putnam, been issued as one of the Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard
;
University. The data
themselves are the accumulation of the past
twelve years, since the writer s interest was, after various other fields of linguistic study, finally drawn to and fixed upon the
languages of the great pre-Columbian American civilizations. Subsequent researches, begun a few years ago, have led to the
belief that almost equal, parallel results will in the future be
found to lie within the great Central Asian district, behind what we know as Chinese but to the writer the greatest door
;
to the past
is still
that of the
The trend of Science

its
Maya glyphs. for the past thirty years, after taking
rise
has
now
then at the very climax (so thought) of materialism, in these last two or three years, especially, become
more manifest.
every
yet
all
field,
A parallel movement is now apparent in nearly each body of scientists working in their own lines, seeming as if led towards recognition of a greater past,
others.
and of worthier views.
One need only mention the work of Professor Socldy, Professor See, Professor Munsterberg
among many
In this progress of Science the writer believes Linguistics, in the wider sense, to be of paramount importance, and that
the philosophy of language
is
inseparable
from Archaeology.
fOll
OK:
Its
*""*
f
o
J^ IttiTGi
Q_g5/
fl)(Ffi) fiFfi^l
V-JxTTTJ
PEREZ CODEX: PAGE
PEREZ CODEX: PAGE
17
THE PEREZ CODEX
THE; PSREZ CODEX was discovered just fifty years ago by Leon de Rosny, while searching through the Bibliotheque Imperiale, Paris, in the hope of bringing to light some docu
Prof.
ments of interest for the then newly awakened study of PreColumbian America. It was found by him in a basket among a lot of old papers, black with dust and practically abandoned in a chimney corner. From a few words with the name Perez, written on a torn scrap of paper then around it but
since lost,
it
received
its
its
name.
proper place in the Library, it was in 1864 photographed by order of M. Victor Duruy, Minister of Instruction, and a few copies issued without further explan
Being restored to
atory notes than the printed wrappers. The number of copies in is stated by Prof, de Rosny to have been very small Leclerc s Bibl. Amer. (1878, No. 2290) it is given as only 10,
;
as 50. A copy Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, and referred to in their publications as a most fortunate ac I had the good fortune to secure a copy some ten quisition. years ago, and one other has recently appeared in a Leipzig catalog at a high price. Beyond these I have not traced any
and
is
in
Brasseur
s Bibl.
Mex-Guat. (page 95),
in the library of the
other copy. In 1872 Prof, de Rosny published a reproduction, drawn by hand, which, as stated by him later, may be disregarded for
practical purposes.*
* In Archives paleographiques de V Orient et de
pi.
I
Amerique,
atlas,
t.
I,
117-142.
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
In 1887 he issued a facsimile edition in colors, 85 copies, which up to the present time has remained the only attempt to show the Codex in its proper colors, and has become exceed
ingly difficult to procure; so much so that seven years search that I was able to secure
it
was only
after
my own
copy.*
In 1888 he reissued the Codex, uncolored, with the same This has also letter-press, and in an edition of 100 copies.
become scarce. Each of these three
editions has
its
advantages and disad
colored edition of 1887, having been worked vantages. over by hand, in lithography, is defective in various places, both as regards the black of the figures and glyphs, and in the
colors.
The
Coloring exists on the original codex which was not

all
reproduced at
in the edition,
and the colors given are
in
many
cases not exact.
Thus on pages 19 and 20 two
different
reds are used for the backgrounds, whereas but one is found in the original; on pages 15, 16 the figures are a turquoise
green, and on pages 17, 18 an olive green, the correct color for all four being turquoise green.
I have been able to which is indeed stated
find
no inaccuracy
in the
1888 edition,
by mechanical process, without hand intervention; but being re produced by printer s ink in black only, not only do the colors not appear, but the chromatic values are actually far inferior
to the photographs of 1864. It was stated further by Prof, de Rosny that some features of the MS. had been lost by
in the introduction to be entirely
deterioration in the 25 years previous to his editions of 1887 and 1888, but this I have not been able to verify in any im
portant point.
The photographs and the edition of 1888 are to all general purposes identical but, notwithstanding that the photographs are steadily yellowing by age, the chromatic values are so far
;
superior that I have continually come to find them the court of final decision in doubtful matters. In a very considerable
number of
* In his
instances a close examination of the photographs

1903, Dr.
Commcntar sur Pariser Mayahandschrift, Danzig,

this edition.
Forstemann does not know of the existence of
figures,
has suggested the presence of faint lines of color on glyphs or which was entirely indistinguishable in both of the
printed editions, and which
was yet
in every case confirmed,
although sometimes with

original
difficulty,
by the examination of the
MS.
value, as well as the scarcity, of these photo graphs was so great, that in 1905 I had my set photographed twice, by dry and wet plate processes, and a few copies printed after a careful comparison and selection of the two sets of
plates.
It is
The proved
The
from these that the present edition has grown.* present edition, save for the photographs thus repro
it is
duced, having been entirely redrawn, and partly restored, fitting to detail just what has been done in this respect.
the
At the very beginning of my introduction to Maya studies enormous burdens placed on research therein at every turn, bore upon me as upon every other student. The subject
its possibilities stimulate enthusiasm to the highest degree; the rewards of success are greater than those of any like prob lem today; and yet, fifty years since the present Codex was discovered, and thirty years since Dr. Forstemann s unsurpass
and
able edition of the
Dresden Codex, the actual workers on the
few scattered and obscure problem are the barest handful. references amongst the volumes on volumes of Spanish writ
most of them scarce or almost un and many not even printed, make up the literature procurable, And a few points of decipherment won to be searched out. and safely fixed by the researchers, from Brasseur, de Rosny, Pousse, Brinton and others a generation ago, to Messrs. Bowditch, Seler, Goodman and a few others of today, are all we have standing out in a wilderness of guesses by many wri
ers, nearly all untranslated,
ters, needless
of naming.
* Codex Peres: Maya-Tzental. Redrawn and Slightly Restored, and with the Coloring as it originally stood, so far as possible, given on the basis of a new and minute examination of the Codex itself. Mounted in the form of the Original. Accompanied by a Reproduction of the also by the entire Text of the Glyphs, unemended 1864 Photographs but with some restorations, Printed from Type, and arranged in Par allel Columns for convenience of study and comparison. Drawn and edited by William E. Gates. Point Loma, 1909. (Privately printed.)
;
10

course the prime and absolute necessity of such a study true facsimiles; but the task of using even these, taken as
Of
is
they must be from much defaced inscriptions and manuscripts, is too obvious for comment. So from the very first of my studies I began to cherish thoughts of the day when Maya
could be printed with type, and classified indexes to the glyphs at hand. From one point of view such facilities can only be
expected to come after decipherment; from another, in ab sence of bilingual keys, they are a necessity before that can be attained. So far as his work covers, a great deal has been
done
in this line
by Mr. A. P. Maudslay
in the field of the
inscriptions.
At the very outset therefore I must enter acknowledgment of the assistance that I owe to the courtesy at that time of Prof. F. W. Putnam, of Peabody Museum, and Mr. Chas. P.
Bowditch, in placing, with a freedom by no means universal
among
with privilege of copying.
curators and researchers, their material at my disposal, I am safe to say that while I have reclassified the glyphs for my own use as my studies went on,
yet without the copy which by Mr. Bowditch s courtesy I was allowed to make of his card index to the glyphs of the three codices, as a start, this edition of the Perez Codex would not
yet have reached daylight through the many other occupations among which Maya studies have had to take their chances.
first it seemed possible to prepare a font of separate for the various elements of the compound glyphs we find types in the texts but after having such a font made a number of
;
At
years ago, and printing a couple of pages of the Dresden Co it became evident that the dex, the result was unsatisfactory
;
proper
Maya
font of type
posite, as is
used in
must be both separate and com Chinese, and not separate only as we have
text cards of this edition have
for Egyptian. therefore been
The type for the made this way.
As to the colored plates of the Codex herewith, it is evident that nothing whatever is gained by preserving the irregular ities of the defaced parts of the Codex, while everything is to
be gained by making
all
as clear and distinct as possible.
The
11
first step therefore was to have a set of photographed enlarge ments of two diameters, made direct from the 1864 issue.
From
these I
made
and glyph
lines of the original,
careful tracings, myself, of the black figure making at the same time the
wards made.
fied,
separate enlarged drawings from which the type were after At this first drawing only the evident, the indis
in parallel
The type forms were then classi All was columns, and compared. arranged then gone over, and new points settled on the basis of the fam It is a fair estimate to say that this pro iliarity thus gained.
putable parts were drawn.
cess of checking and verifying was gone through, first to last, down to the final proof-reading of the printed sheets, some
fifty times.
One most important fact was established by this process, and must be noted. In the Perez Codex at least, nothing is to be taken for granted, nothing charged to a careless scribe, and no variants regarded as being identical in value with a very few exceptions, to which I shall advert later. Wherever there remains enough of any glyph to show its characteristic strokes, it can be regarded as safely indicated whenever the strokes
;
are not just those characteristic of any glyph, it cannot be in ferred. Down to the very end of the various revisions I found
myself able to add glyphs which at first seemed hopeless, and Relying on the yet when once seen became clear and plain.
presence of the photographs to check the work, I have thus added a very considerable number to the glyphs at first appar In some cases, as in 6-b-ll and 17, and especially in ent. 8-b-7, 8, 10, where glyphs were only partially erased, but no other instances of perfect glyphs existed to compare them with, In I have let them alone, without attempting restoration. short, I may have made some errors of eye, but I have guessed
nothing. In a very few places I have restored glyphs totally erased, relying on the parallelism of the passages. Such are some of
the
Ahau-numbers
in the
in the central sections
on pages 15
to 18-a,
upper sections of pages 2 to 11, and on those pages, the initial pairs of glyphs b, c, the first columns of pages 19 and 20,
12
and a few day-signs on pages 21, 23 and 24. These glyphs are all necessitated by their different series, and hence can cause no confusions while it seemed advantageous to have them be A fair instance of the procedure is shown on fore the eye.
;
page 3-b-l,
3. The temptation was strong to put the usual glyph here as on all the other pages, but the slight variation in the lines left of glyph 3-b-3 forbade it.
little
The
restoration will further be found a
bolder on the
type-cards than in the colored plates, where I have in general only endeavored to reproduce what could be seen actually pre sent. The glyphs restored on the upper part of page 7 would
mon
seem hopeless at first sight but they are well-known and com forms, and the characteristic traces shown on the photo graphs belong to these and to no others known.
;
The cards of type-printed text, in parallel columns for con venience of study, are self-explanatory. Such an arrangement has from the first seemed to me indispensable for proper study
and comparison.
The paging of
the de
Rosny
editions I have
retained, except to change the practically blank page 1 to be page 25, since to number this as 1 is confusing. For the divis
ions and the
numbering of the glyphs I have made my own ar It is possible that section b on pages 2 to 11 rangement. should only go to the bottom line of the central figure, leaving section d to read clear across the page, and another section to
;
be made to the left of the nearly erased figures at the bottom but the chances as shown by the lining and arrangement of the columns seemed to favor it as I have given it. Only final
decipherment can decide
definitely.
13
THE COLORS
Codex afforded a number of questions some of which I have cleared up and embodied in the plates; a few are I believe insoluble. I have also been able to add a few wholly new points, not indicated by any of
colors of the
THE
for solution,
the preceding editions. Being unable to make a personal examination of the orig inal, I prepared from my enlarged black drawings, above men
tioned, another full set including the figures
and all glyphs or other parts showing any suggestions of color. Upon these I prepared a list of nearly 200 questions covering every detail, together with certain general specifications, and had the whole
made
the subject of a careful and exhaustive comparison with the original at the Bibliotheque Nationale. This report, when duly returned with the various details set out, with the var
ious colors
shown
in their exact tints
by water-colors, and with
a special analysis of the question of the fading of the colors, was again checked and verified by the evidence of the three
editions.
In doubtful questions arising from faded colors, I have sought to show the condition of the original as it exists today.
show
In the solid red backgrounds and other places as far as possible what the Codex looked
have aimed to
like
when
fresh.
This question as to what all the colors in detail were when The following fresh, I do not feel that I have quite solved. near as the data permit palette scheme seems to me about as
us to formulate.
permanent black, being the parts reproduced
in black in
the present edition.

brick-red, tinged with crimson, used for backgrounds, red numerals, and probably elsewhere. This we may call un
fading red.
A genuine brown, as on the animals, pages haps also elsewhere as lining ornament. A
pale pink as flesh color on the
5-a, 8-a
per
human
figures.
14
A
A
blue, as
on the possible katun number
series
on pages
23 and 24.
turquoise-green, with varying amounts of blue tinge, on the spotted figures and in the numeral columns of pages 15
with somewhat less of the blue, for the bands on pages 21 to 24.
to 18;
also,
"water"
The above colors are all definite and positive. Then next appears a brownish color used for
lining or
ornamenting various glyphs, and the clothing, headdress, etc., We find many shades from a pale neutral etc., of the figures. up to a darker clear brown, and also a definitely reddish, as on the tail of the bird on the right side of page 23. This brown may be a fading of the red of the backgrounds and numerals,
but the permanence of the color in these latter places is so I think it should be re positive that I believe it is not so.
garded as separate. We next come to a color question related directly to de cipherment, that of the very difficult numeral columns on pages 15 to 18. There is no practical reason discernable for the use
of alternating colors save the avoidance of confusion between bar combinations. Three bars together of different colors stand of course for three 5 s of one color they would make a single
;
therefore find here our above black, red and but we blue-green alternating and clearly marked in places also find many numerals of varying shades of brownish, bistre
15.
;
number
We
and grayish. I called for especial care in the examination of these points on the original Codex, and the water-color sheets and explanatory notes show in detail the facts of the present
state of the
Codex.
Prior to the examination
supposed that
these faded numerals were a faded red, but this is stated in the report to be certainly not the case the suggestion is made
;
that they are probably faded blacks. From the latter conclusion I am inclined in part to dissent, at least as to certain passages, for two reasons. These are,
the actual permanence of the above noted main colors, everywhere else; and second, passages in the second columns
first
of pages 16 and 17.
In each of these
we
find faded
brown or
15
gray bars, so placed between or next to plain black bars as would give, were they faded blacks, more than three black
bars together.
Another point on page 17

first
is
to be noted.
column, are five blue 3 s. shown in the 1887 edition and in

to the
Some
In the top section, of these blue dots, as
my
water-colors, have faded
same
light
blue 5 in the
brown seen elsewhere. The brown and the second column of this page, middle division, as
an identical chromatic value
in the
just mentioned, have also
photographs.
whole conclusion therefore, so far as I can formulate columns we have Red, black, and blue-green numerals, as shown. Some of the blue numerals seem to have been outlined with black, of which traces still appear on the original, are seen in the photo graphs, and indicated in the present color plates. Several instances where the Codex has been rubbed so as
one,
is
My
that in these
to leave only the outlines of original black numerals. These are now gray in the original, and I have left them as black
outlines,
touched in with gray. number of pale brown numerals which are either faded blue-greens, or else indicate a fourth color in the orig
Finally, a
inal.
Which
of these alternatives
is
the true one, I cannot say.
as
The original Codex is still in practically as good condition when the three editions were taken from it. The material of which it is made is a maguey paper of grayish tinge, and not a yellowish brown as would be inferred from the 1887
edition.
This
is
noteworthy, as the wearing away of the coat
ing with which the paper was surfaced for the writing, does not leave a brownish place which, as in the 1887 edition, might be mistaken for traces of applied color. This coating is indeed
better preserved in places than is shown by the 1887 edition thus the headdress at the extreme left of page 20, just to the
;
right of the restored 8 shown with the coating

left
Ezanab on the present color plates, all erased and the black writing as which is incorrect. on the ground-paper
is
if
16
THE PAGES
COMING
Codex,
I feel that little is in
IN
DETAIL
then to the question of the subject-matter of the order beyond a simple analytical
description of the different pages, rather than any attempt at
an interpretation.
ficial
resemblances between
The road of general deductions from super unknown elements and the details
known things from other times and places, is strewn the wrecks of too many theories to be attractive traveling. by I am firmly convinced of the greatness and importance of the
of other
study
we have
;
before us, and the exalted civilization which
produced it but I do not know how to interpret these monu ments. Indeed the very persistence with which the interpre
tation
(which
will certainly
it
applicable
ficient
when
does
finally
be self-evident and everywhere come) still eludes us, is a suf
we have not yet found the right road. When doorways to the past of mankind will open of themselves, and we will know more of human life and evolu
proof that
we
do, great
tion than
classify,
we now
guess.
Until then
we can
only describe,
and try
to get rid of
some of the mechanical impedi

is
menta of the
search.
What we have
of the Perez Codex

it
manifestly but a frag
ment; the extent of
originally
It is fortunate guessing. several practically complete chapters or portions of the work. Taking first the side of the MS. paged 2 to 12, we find the en
we have no means of even however that what we have gives
tire side
covered by a series of pictures with text,
all
identical
in
its
arrangement. The few remaining likeness to the others, for we see in
traces on page 12
show
their proper places parts
of the Tun-glyph on which the figures on the upper section are seated of the Cimi, Tun and Cauac glyphs just as in pages 6 and 8; also of the columns of glyphs to the left, and ll-c-2,
;
traces of the headdress.
As
will
appear further, at
least
it
two
is
more pages are required
to complete this series,
and
as
good a supposition as any other that they were those which that is, one before page 2 and would be numbered 1 and 13

one after page
12.
17
For convenience of reference the divisions may be lettered from a to e; a being given to the upper portion, b to the left columns of glyphs, e to the large middle picture, and c and d to the text divisions above and below this.
of these pages
Taking up
first
the central figures, section
e,
we
find in
each a standing figure, with ceremonial headdress of varying character, offering a dragon s head (a universal symbol of wisdom) to another figure, seated on a cushioned dais, the
side of
in turn
which bears various

extends
"
constellation
"
signs.
The
latter
his hands, either holding
some
object, or else
in a simple gesture.
The standing
figures are all almost
com
pletely preserved; the seated ones unfortunately largely or wholly obliterated. In front of the standing ministrant is a vase of offerings, usually a triple Kan figure, and in two cases
In the upper part of the picture, facing in every case but one towards the ministrant, is a bird figure, different on each page, and having in two cases a human head. On each
with knives.
is an Ahau sign with red numeral, all of them together forming a series which (starting on the supposed page 1 with 4 Ahau) gives the succession 4, 2, 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1, 12, 10,
page
8,
6; in other words the numbers of thirteen consecutive katuns. The Ahau numerals 13, 11, 9, on pages 3, 4 and 5,
are entirely distinct, and enough traces appear on other pages If this to establish this as a katun series beyond question.
chapter includes just a round of numbers it would of course be complete in 13 pages. The chapter may be historical in
contents, but the presence of this numeral Ahau-series clearly relates these pages to successive katuns in some way, whatever
may have. The ten pages thus in some have to do with the lapse of 72,000 days, or not way definitely quite 200 solar years, and the extension of the series to a full
other bearings they
The cycle of 20 katuns is quite likely. section e is red on each alternate page.
Returning
figures, nearly
background of
this
now
all
to section a,
we
find
on each page three
of persons or animals, seated on a large base
18

practically identical with the tun-glyph. the backgrounds to these figures are red.
Fourteen of
Above each
figure there seems to have been at least six glyphs, of which but very few are left. Above these is a space entirely erased. In the center of the section on each page is a column contain
ing at least two Ahaus with red numerals. The numerals of the upper row exceed those of the lower by 6; each row de
creases from page to page by 4. The erased margins of the MS. do not afford space for another picture besides the three, on either side, but they do just give room for another Ahau-
column on the
existed,
across.
If
it
left
of each page.
If this second
Ahau-column
we have
again the katun-series repeated in each row did not exist, the series (reading from the sup
posed page 1) of 13, 9, 5, etc., and 7, 3, 12, etc., decreasing by 4 s, give the numbers of successive tuns. Once again the ques tion of whether a simple number-round of thirteen terms, or a full round of twenty terms, whether tuns or katuns, was originally displayed on the Codex, must be left undetermined.
It is
further to be noted that faint but exact traces of a third
Ahau, on a higher line, appear on page 5, as well as some doubtful traces on page 8. No definite relationship between the pictures of this section a and those of section e is apparent. Section b is made up of 45 or more glyphs in three col umns. The first column is almost totally erased on every page, and I have disregarded it both in assigning reference numbers and in the type cards. The other two columns I have num bered in double column sequence downwards; but this can be
regarded as solely for convenience sake.
The glyph
which is three times repeated at the beginning of page 2, and recurs in parallel position repeated two to five times on each page, is the most common glyph in the whole Codex. It is identifiable probably 38 times, including twice at the top of the erased first column on page 4. It heads the second column several times on every page, except 7, which is too erased for any determination, and page 3, where a slight variation in what is left of the postfix at b-3 forbade its insertion under the rules I have given limiting restorations. I suspect that

this
19
glyph should be repeated at 3-b-9 and ll-b-9, for the following reason. In positions b-6, b-8 or b-10 of each page
j
occurs a certain face-glyph else in either the Perez,
that is found nowhere Dresden or Tro.-Cort. codices. If the initial glyph is repeated at 3-b-9 and ll-b-9 as suggested, then (with a slight variation on page 4) this series of repetitions of the initial glyph will in each case be closed by
the face-glyph in question. marked feature of section b
is
the occurrence, near the
bottom of each page, of a Cauac-sign, with or without the wing-postfix, and with prefixed and superfixed numerals, exactly as is so common in connex- *| ion with the Chuen-sign on the Inscriptions. This Cauac-sign
is
usually accompanied by an Ahau and a Tun, each with numerals that are for the most part erased. This combination suggests distance-numbers and dates, somewhat as on the In scriptions; in this case the double-numbered Cauacs would
uinals plus so many days. The following besides the one above, are also found combinations,
stand for so
many
tral picture.
Section c consists of 16 glyphs in two rows, above the cen Glyphs 15 and 16 on each page are erased. The
*+ VI;
is the frequent repetition of the the repetition on each page of a single or double numerals as in
chief general characteristic
Cimi-compound, *&
Cauac-sign with jjf^r^Q and of Tun-compounds, with section b

;
Gl3
I
subfix and with
varying prefixes (frequently faces), as especially see page 5. Section d is a triple row of glyphs, originally 21 in some
instances, but with
many now
erased.
am
able to establish
few general characteristics for this section, save again the fre quency of the Cimi-compound as in section c, of various Tun-
20

and
of
the
compounds,
two
glyphs
the exception of 10-b-4, the face ffiffy^ with the tau-eye occurs only in this section d and on pages 15 This glyph is exceedingly common both in Dres. and to 18.
Tro.-Cort., the
With
and
form
in
which
it
appears at 3-d-4,
6,
occurring (including its secondary compounds) no less than 126 times in Dres. and 33 times in Tro.-Cort.
Beneath section d are the remains of red numerals and of heads and headdresses of figures which are now too much erased to give any basis for comment. A most marked feature of the Codex is the very large
number of Tun-compounds, a
feature confined
exclusively,
with one exception, to the present pages 2 to 11, and pages 23, 24. A classified list shows 28 compounds of this glyph,
20 of these showing the

face or other prefix. Tun-bases of section
a,
subfix,
and combined with a

of this fact with the
The connexion
is
and with the katun-rounds shown by

manifest.
the Ahau-series above referred to,
To sum up
we
the general characteristics of this side of the

to interpret
MS., and without attempting

find the following data:
any separate glyphs,
The Cimi-compound
occurs 25 times.
fQxYl an ^ i^ovo
i* s
sub-compound
The numeral-compounded Cauac occurs 20 times. The glyph \~)^D[ occurs 13 times on this side and once
on page
23.
v/JfcLSv
occurs 19 times and prob ftTT^ once only ^yT/Ji on the other side of the MS. ably oftener The various Tun-glyphs occur 45 times, on the two sides.
The Chuen-compound
|j>)
The
f ace-glyph
^J^i&l
occurs 10 times.
occurs 10 times.
The Kan-Ymix glyph
The glyph
occurs 37 times on this side and, with
a prefix and a changed postfix, once on page 24. With the exceptions noted, none of the above glyphs occur
at all
on the reverse
side of the
MS.

There are
occurring in
all
21
finally
19 different
Yax
fy^}
compounds,
25 times, 16 of them on this side of the MS. With three exceptions the above glyphs are the only ones that are repeated in the Codex with any marked frequency.
The
three exceptions are the face with tau-eye, already mentioned, and the two glyphs occurring as an initial pair twelve times on pages 15 to
tions a, b,
c.
18, sec
Of month
satisfied
of
signs used as such I am only 12 Cumhu, at 18-b-4 and of
16 Zac, at 4-c-7.
1
The glyph
(rfijfa
at 7-c-2
may
also be
Yaxkin.
[jr^lj
is that of the West, and again at 16-a-6. There are besides these numeral Cauacs, 15 other Cauac compounds, occurring in all 17 times on this side, and twice on pages 23, 24.
The only
cardinal point sign
occurring at 4-b-14
D""x")
side
Upon turning over the Codex, we find that whereas on we have been considering the scribe limited himself to
the
the
conventional red numerals and backgrounds, with here and there a touch of brown, upon this other side we have a wealth
of color united with a harmony of composition and structure that marks a very high degree of artistic skill. It is not alone
the accuracy of the drawing and the writing, such as we have noted in connexion with the study of the glyphs, but the whole manuscript as it lies open before us shows that sense of pro
portion, that ability to unify without seeming effort a multi tude of details into a perfectly balanced whole, which is the When we positive mark of developed and genuine culture.
remember
into a brilliancy that
the exceeding difficulty of combining primary colors is not garish, and the equal difficulty of
achieving artistic mastery in a conventional treatment of forms, we are simply forced to recognize that we have here the evid
ence of an advanced school of art with
full rights
of inde
pendent citizenship.
distorted,
If the figures look strange
and sometimes
we must remember
that our whole training has been
22
in the

realistic school,
by which
we
are prone to judge
all
others, but by which they must not be judged.
have no weigh these compositions in the scales of our art motifs than we have to weigh Greek rhythm of quantity or Saxon of alliteration against our weights by which we measure rhythm of rhyme and stress. In fact it is impossible for us even to judge concerning the true harmonic effect of these
We
more
right to
other measures, and it may well be doubted whether the very soul itself of our meter is not empty and tinny as compared
with these others
There
is
one great broad
quality for quality. line that divides the nations
and
of
civilizations of the earth, past
and present,
in all their arts
controls the inner form of language and of manifests in the passage of thought from man to man it determines whether the writing of the people shall be hieroglyphic or alphabetic; it gives both life and form to
It
expression. the literal.
We may
it
call
it
that of the ideographic as against
languages;
;
the ideals of their art.
It is
a distinction that
was
laid
cognized by Wilhelm von Humboldt, when he
clearly re down that
the incorporative characteristic essential to all the American languages is the result of the exaltation of the imaginative over
the ratiocinative elements of mind.
The time has passed when we think

perspective that these
that the absence of our
drawing
"
in
children of nature
Japanese pictures is due to the fact never happened to recognize

"
that a thing looks smaller in proportion to its distance, so that have come, in some they ought to come to us to learn.
We
measure
not yet fully, to recognize that whereas we show a to the eye, these other peoples suggest a thought to the thing mind, by their pictures. And we should remember, and re
if
always, that while our modern art having won its technical and artistic skill within the past few hundred years, is now beginning to emancipate itself from the materialism of
member
the eye by efforts towards the methods, these impressionist ancient peoples had long since arrived at the ability to convey impressions through the medium of harmonious composi
" "
"
"
tions of the
most
rigid
conventional elements
an
artistic

achievement which those
begin to appreciate.
It
23
can alone
who know
its
difficulties
may
modern
be quite easily forgiven to one trained with Western, eyes, who at first sight of these monuments, in total
ignorance of their meanings, sees them as strange or grotesque.
But when, as their strangeness wears away, one comes to see the unfailing accuracy with which the glyphs are drawn, one s opinion of their makers has to change. And when, with this
in its bearings as a
familiarity gained, one advances to an appreciation of the work whole, one has to acknowledge himself fac
ing the production of craftsmen who had the inheritance of not only generations, but ages of training. Such a combination of complete mastery in composition, perfect control of definite
and fixed forms, and hand technique, can grow up from bar barism in no few hundred years. I would hesitate to think it could even come in a few thousands, unless they were years of greater settledness and peaceful civilization than our two thousand years of disturbed and warring European Christen dom have yet had an example of to show us. It is easy enough in the absence of definite historical records, and in our general ignorance of human evolution, to theorize and speculate about it all; but the commonly accepted picture in our minds of a few savage wandering tribes settling and growing up in this country some several hundred or a thousand years after the
Christian era, simply will not
fit
in
with the fact of their ability
to produce such works a few hundred years later. Had we nothing but the Perez Codex and Stela P at Copan, the merits
of their execution alone, weighed simply in comparison with observed history elsewhere, would prove that we have to do not with the traces of an ephemeral, but with the remains of
a wide-spread, settled race and civilization, worthy to be ranked with or beyond even such as the Roman, in its endurance, de
and the beginnings of unknown. As to the Codex be totally fore us, we can only imagine what the beauty, especially of the pages we now come to discuss, must have been when the whole was fresh and perfect.
in the world,
velopment and influence
whose culture are
still
24

The second
side of the
Codex has
to be treated in four divi
which includes pages 15 to 18. For numerical reasons which will appear, this chapter must probably have begun, however, at least one page further to
sions or chapters, the first of
the
left.
These four pages are upper, middle and lower.

erased for any
laid out
Too much
with three main divisions, of the upper section is

that
its
comment other than
arrangement seems
to have been parallel in all respects with the middle section. This latter shows three subsections, the backgrounds in some
cases being red,* containing each a picture (probably of a god or a human figure in every instance), surmounted by a black and a red numeral and by six glyphs, in double column. This
gives 12 subsections for the four pages, which we may refer to respectively as 15-a, b, c, etc. Of the initial pairs of glyphs in each subsection many are complete, and no section is left
or other of the positions
without the correct traces of the corresponding glyph for one so that although 5 of the 24 glyphs
;
are totally erased, we may safely restore them all. Other fea tures of the comparative use and frequency of the glyphs on
these pages have already been given. At the top of each picture is found a black and a red nu meral. These form the consecutive black counters or inter
" "
val numbers,
and the corresponding red day numbers of sub
divided tonalamatls, so common in Dres. and Tro.-Cort. It is customary to find these tonalamatls divided into fifths or
At
fourths, 52 or 65 days respectively the 53rd or 66th day the initial red
is
four or five trecenas.
number
is
again reached,
and the calculation

at the left with a
is
(by hypothesis) repeated, starting again day-sign below the first. Such a column seen in the lower part of page 17, where we find 6 Oc, Ik, Ix
new
these are to be completed by restoring below an erased Cimi
Forstemann (Comm. z. Par. Mayahds.} speaks of the back to the central figure on page 16 as black, instead of red ; he also describes the number columns as made up of red and black num erals only. There are many similar errors in his Commentary, due to his ignorance of the colors, and to the obscurity of the photographic
* Dr.
ground
reproductions.
COMMENTARY ON
THE) PEREZ
CODEX
25
and Ezanab, completing the 260 days and bringing us around in any counters again to 6 Oc. The total of all the black series must always be some multiple of 13, usually 52 or 65, is the interval between counter as stated. And since each its adjoining red numbers, wherever a red and a black number are given, the other red number, whether before or after, can
"
"
"
"
always be
filled in.
column appear for the series in the middle division, and several of the numerals are also erased. Two obscurities must be cleared up before trying to fill out the series. On page 16 right is a partly erased black numeral,
traces of this initial
No
we have
which from the traces may be either 10 or 11. Taking it as 10, 13 plus 10 equals an erased red 10; plus 5 (on page 17) equals the red 2 below the 5. This verifies so far. But we next find plus 5 equals 8, which is of course incorrect.
An inspection of the MS. and the photographs reveals a red dish spot (or perhaps even three such spots) in the extreme up per right corner of the picture space, 17-a, and also a dark spot
under the black 5 in 17-b. It is possible that the separated red dots (one doubtful) are to be read together as 3; or that the red dots under the 5 are to be disregarded in the count (just as
the red 8 on the next page, 18-a), and the red number for If 17-a found in the upper right, above the seated figure. red number in 17-a is 3, the two numbers in 16-c must be 11. the
is
Or
to
is
it
it,
be assumed that the spot under the 5 in 17-b belongs making 6 instead of 5, which figures out. The final result
may
the same, as
we have
either 10
and
6,
or 11 and
5, in
these
two
places, and either reaches properly the clear red 8 in 17-b. In 18-a we find black 26, with a small red 8 below, and a
large red 13 in the usual place at the side. The red 8 will have to be disregarded, as not part of the series, which requires 13,
and nothing
else.
now possibly set down the series as follows, using small figures above the the line for the black counters, and put ting in parentheses all numbers restored
:
We may
26 1 11 5 5 5 6 5 6 3 (6) 9( )(2) 7 13 (H) 3 8 (13) 13 10, or else 6 5 6 10 S 6 5 3 7 13 (10) 2 8 (13) 26 13 10 10 (6)

9<
>(2)
26
This leaves us the black number at the beginning, in 15-a, and both numbers at the end, 18-c, still not filled in. Adding
together all the counters we get 82, plus at least the two missing If the total were 104, we black numbers, one at each end.
might expect
it
to have been comprised within the four sub
sections 15-a to 18-a.
But 104
is
not a tonalamatl fraction.

is
130 days, although a tonalamatl half,
an unknown division,
and would hardly get into the space. If we begin the series in the upper division of the page (as occurs in Dres.) and come around to the middle division, the probabilities would require that it displayed a full series of 260 days, and again also that
of page 15. The probabilities of this series therefore, indicate at least a page 14 to the left, ar ranged like the other four, and forming one chapter with them. have now to deal with the puzzling numeral columns,
it
began
it
to the left
as
is,
We
in alternating colors,
found to the
left
of each subsection of
the upper and middle divisions 24 columns in all. These have been referred to at some length in the preliminary dis cussion of the colors, and there is little more that can be said.
As
not be certainly assumed.
there said, the entire reason for alternating the colors can Alternation of color occurs not only
it is
where
only lines of dots,
needed to distinguish bars, but also where we have which are of course self -separating. And to
say that
it is
question. and a footing of the
only for artistic purposes is a mere begging of the Only four or five of these columns are complete,
153,
numbers in each gives us varying amounts and tells us nothing. On the parts that are left we six times have a Chuen ^3 with a black number apparently belonging to it (perhaps a multiplier), and also once
from 113 to
a double Chuen, as in Tro.-Cort. or 20, is frequent.
The use of
the red &a/-sign,
The lower division of these pages was also subdivided, into four sections on each, which we may refer to as d, e, f, g. Each contains a picture, with black and red numerals as above, surmounted by four glyphs only. The pictures are all quite
incomplete
;
neither
is
there anything to add to what has been
already said of the glyphs.
27
In the middle of page 17 one tonalamatl ends, with a red 6, and another begins, also with 6. The second starts with the day 6 Oc, is divided into fifths, and the initial column must have been in full: 6 Oc, Ik, Ix, Cimi, Ezanab. The restora
tion of the series gives:
This (4) 1 6. however only gives a total of 51 for the black counters. There is space to the right for another section, but whatever may have been written there has entirely disappeared. The last
>
6 22
15 in
two
9ta es
10
2<
three numbers
If
6 seem unmistakable, the especially so. last 6 as an error for 5, and then restore 1 6 This is the one in section 18-g, it would give the necessary 52. passage in the Codex where I can see no way but to assume a
1
we
regard the
mistake in the writing; for

less for
some
entirely
unknown reason
plus 4 does not equal 6, and the error is clear.
un
52- or 65-day periods.
The preceding tonalamatl may have been divided either into If the period was 52, it must have
15, right side.
in
begun with an initial column on page event it would be restored as follows

(initial
In this
6)<
giving 52.
stages) (12)65712(12 ( 11 )86 In this case a third tonalamatl must have begun
?
19in two stages)
two
somewhere
page
15.
to the left,
and ended on the erased right side of
different restoration
2
to the extreme edge of page 15,

8
>(8)
would carry the initial column back when we would have this:
stages)
(initial
6)<
3 11 (1) (H w
(12)65712(12
two stages)
(
1 1 )
86
giving 65.
To
choose between these two would be mere guessing.
The well-known pages 19 and 20 come next. they make four compartments, up and down the
Together
full
length
"
of the pages, two with red and two with black backgrounds. Each is, or rather was, preceded by a column of 13 yearbearers." The left column on each page I have restored, al
though no traces of
it
are
left.
But apart from
necessity, as part of the series, if the
its manifest width of the red ground
on page 20 (see the photographs)

to be just the correct proportion,
is measured, it will be found and part of the straight left
28

still
edge of the red can
be seen, just left of the rod in the
hand of the mummy-figure, and leaving just room for the Ezanab column. In the colored plates I have only shown 12 instead of 13 day-signs in each column, but a measurement of the space above and below shows that the missing four are to be placed at the top and not at the bottom. These two pages therefore have application in some way to 52 solar years, be ginning with 1 Lamat and ending with 13 Akbal (Votan). These year-bearers are those of the Tzental instead of the Yucatecan system, as described by Landa, and on these two
" "
pages
rests, so far as
regards
ment of the Codex Perez

northern
Maya
district.
known subject-matter, the assign to the Palenque rather than to the It is thus to be considered with the
Inscriptions of that region, and with the Dresden Codex.* And in accord with what is known of the state of the different
parts of the country at the time of the Conquest, and of the history of the break-up and extinction of the Maya empire, it
must be assigned the greater antiquity on that account. It is probable that pages 19 and 20 had no text passages.
Pages 21 and 22 again, judging from the coloring and the arrangement, seem to form a pair. Each had on the upper part probably five rows of glyphs, some 70 in all, of which only
10 or 12 are at
all
it
hitherto discussed,
recognizable. Contrary to all the pages may be that these glyphs are to be read
from
right to left.
The
faces in these
all
look to the right,
and the customary prefixes are all on the right. In classifying these glyphs, therefore, they must be all reversed. The greater part of page 21 is framed in and divided up by green bands, evidently for water, two branches of which, after crossing a constellation band near the bottom, end one
in falling torrents, the
(TT1|
all
the sun,
and
itself
other in a circle surrounding a kin-sign, surrounded by four dragon s heads,
figured in the midst of the torrents.
Below
this
symbol
the Tro.-Cort., in view of the apparent Kan, Muluc Ix, Cauac years indicated on pages 34~37, and the 13 Cumhu immediately next to 13 Ahau on page 73 (13 Ahau 13 Cumhu falling only possibly in a year 12 Lamat) I am not ready to say.
to
Where
place
29
is the open mouth of a dragon, towards which is looking and pointing a black- faced figure, of the god D, the Ancient of Days, described by Schellhas as the moon and night god. To the left of the torrents is a figure, nearly erased, but with the
wristlets characteristic of the
god of death, and holding
in the
hand a
torch.
The glyph
frffiffi
occurs written in the torrents,
at the left side.
p)H@
divide the middle of the page into six compartments containing, so far as not totally erased, 65 dayAll my efforts to relate these signs signs, in columns of five.
either to each other or to
The green bands
any other
series in the codices,
have
a
so far been fruitless.
The upper seven columns have each

left,
black numeral beneath, running from right to and the dot of another 6.
123356
cir
Each of the columns of

cuit returning into itself.
five day-signs
forms a closed
In the upper row the 1st and 6th columns show successive days 8 apart in order; columns 2, 3, The 1st in the lower row is 4, 5 and 7 are 16 apart in order.
at intervals of 8, the
column
error
2nd and 5th at intervals of 16. The 3rd with the 4th, an exception, the intervals being suc is, That this is probably not a scribal cessively 8, 4, 4, 8, 16.
is shown by the fact that the same series, though begin with different days, occurs in both columns. The 6th and ning possible 7th columns of the lower part are indeterminable.
We thus have three rounds of 5 times 8, or 40 days seven rounds of 5 times 16, or 80 days two irregular rounds of 40 days. These are not such columns as could form the beginning
;
of a series of tonalamatl
fifths, in
come 12
apart.
So
that this section
which the successive days must be left unexplained.*
* Mr. Bowditch suggests to me that the numbers 1 2 3 3 5 6 6 are to be read with each of the day signs in their respective columns, and, being placed in the middle, may apply both to the upper and lower sets. The strongest objection I can see to this is that the numbers are black, instead of the usual red. In this case, instead of inter vals of 8 and 16, giving rounds of 5x8 40 and 5x16 80 days, we would have intervals of 156 and 208 (from 1 Ymix to 1 Muluc, etc.), rounds of 780 and 1040 days respectively. Or, if read upwards, giving we would have 52 and 104 day intervals (1 Ben to 1 Chicchan, etc.), and rounds of 260 and 520 clays. But whichever be the case, the page is sui generis, and its why is still beyond us.
30
At the right of page 21 begins a solid red background which probably extended right across page 22. Two standing seven seated figures, spotted green figures appear on page 21 one green spotted, on page 22. Page 22 is crossed by a winding dragon whose body is A narrow green band covered by the constellation band." also winds across the page, inclosing two of the upper figures. Below the dragon and this green band are seen, seated above the open mouths of two erect dragons, two figures in conversa
;
"
tion, each bearing various insignia of the death god. very curious cartouche outline, partly erased, at the lower right, incloses what seems to be 13 Ahau, 3, 6, the right hand dot
of the 3 being erased.
On pages 23 and 24 the brilliant backgrounds of the pre ceding pages disappear, and we have two pages, to be read to gether, of glyphs, day-signs and small figures, finely and spar
ingly illuminated with the usual four colors.
The body of
the
apparently continuous from page 21, and crosses these pages entirely with the constellation band, displayed along
dragon
is
its full
length.
part of these two pages contained originally 91 perhaps to be read from right to left, the same as 21 glyphs, and 22. The faces look to the right, the usual prefixes and the
The upper
few numerals are also on the right of their respective com pounds. Many of the glyphs are the same as those on pages
2 to 11, reversed right for
cially noted.
Glyph 23-a-ll should be spe the numeral prefix, 6, appears to But on investigation we belong, postfixed, to glyph 23-a-17. find the same compound, a ya.v-chuen with prefix, also
left.
At
first sight
^mJ
at 21-a-8
and 24-a-26, affix just below (555)
in
each case with the 6 attached.
The
this
number 6
is
also plainly a prefix to
glyph 23-a-12; so that glyph 23-a-ll must be read and include the 6 as prefix. At 24-a-26, j| the same glyph is written left to right. There are also a few other glyphs on these pages which Such for instance, as cannot be regarded as right to left.

at 23-a-19
.
.
31
affix
and 24-a-17.
In this glyph the
at the side is properly a prefix (perhaps the posses ..j v sive), and I do not recall any instance of its use as a postfix.
.
In the affixes, the superfix and prefix positions

eral rule be regarded as
may
as a gen
wholly identical
also the subfix
and
postfix positions. But also as a general rule the two pairs are I believe not to be interchanged, any more than we interchange prefixes and endings in English; this rule is not universal for
all affixes,
as
some seem
in
able to
go anywhere, but
it
is
one
have always regarded

it is
my
is
glyph classifying.
As
to
a symmetrical glyph and as there can be no doubt that these glyphs were equally legible to the Maya reader written in either direction, it may well be
to be noted that this
regarded as unimportant, and not to be rated even as an error.

is
still
stronger similar case.
Here the wing j^^f
a postfix, the superfix in the usual left to right order, (JJ0 and the main element written left to right, as in all its other instances. And
affix to the right is certainly
*"
again in point. The iace-tun compounds on these pages, and also on the opposite side of the manuscript, should be particularly noted.
is
Below the constellation band, inscribed on a wavy green band (the waters of space ?) are seven repetitions of or the sun glyph within the shields.* Between each appeared probably two black 8 s. The sun-shields are
[F"o"l)
about to be seized by different animals, dragon, tortoise, bird, etc., a seeming evident suggestion of either an eclipse, or the
passage of the sun into some zodiacal sign. Another series of seven sun-shields, on the green band, separated by numeral 8 s,
and attacked by animals and a

of the pages.
skeleton, crosses the lower part
find a series of columns of each preceded by red numerals. Allowing for the space erased I have restored the last column to the right,
five day-signs
* I have retained the usual term shields for the flaring forms which embrace the sun glyph, though without accepting its appropriate ness. They might with equal likelihood be conventionalized wings.
"
Between these two bands we
"
32
and part of the preceding.
This gives 12 columns only, where as at least 13 are required. There may have been a 12th col umn to the left of page 23, where there is just the proper
space for this,* leaving the dragon s body to curve above the column so as to pass to page 22. The scries may have con 13 columns on pages 23, 24, and 7 tinued on across page 25 more filling page 25, would make a full cycle of 20 columns.
;
And
in this
connexion
it
should be noted that the dragon
body
with constellation band goes almost to the edge of page 24 with no sign of ending or turning, such as might be expected And if the constellation dragon if the chapter ends here.
continues over page 25, the column series
the same.
may
well have done
Before discussing this series it will be of advantage to re view what the Codex gives us on the question of reading left
to right or right to left. First, in both the Dresden
and Tro.-Cort. the glyph faces
the calculations, reading is with a very few possible exceptions, such as from left to right, the tables on Dres. 24, 64, 69, etc.
look to the left
and, as
shown by
In the Perez, as shown by the tonalamatls on 15 to 18, the 52 year-bearers on 19 and 20, and the katun-series on 2 to 12, the general direction of the reading is also left to right.
Above or below each of
the red
number columns of
these
pages 23, 24, is to be found a blue number. These numbers make a katun-series, starting with 4, decreasing by 2, if we
read
it
left to right.
It is not, to
customary Ahau-sign,
(M).
but, taken in
be sure, accompanied by the connexion with the

face-tun glyphs and also
to 11, already
is
marked
others,
parallelism of the glyphs,
on these two pages with those on pages 2
discussed, the possibility that a katun-series subject-matter must be considered.
a part of this
On
the other hand, the glyphs in the upper part of
all
four
* Dr. Forstemann ignores the space on the right of page 24, and restores two columns to the left of page 23 in order to make up the thirteen columns; but, as shown by the edges of the pages in the photographs, one column restored in each place will just fill the obliter ated space.

pages 21 to 24 face to the right, and, as already
detail, are practically all
33
set
out in
written in reverse position as regards
their prefixes, etc.
columns we are
And so also does the Eb-glyph in the daynow considering face to the right. These col
umns, unlike those on page 21, which include all of the 20 dayCib signs, only include 5 of the day-signs: Kan, Lamat, Eb, and Ahau Eb being the only non-symmetrical one of these.
;
have thus quite strong evidence, especially as provided by the position of the prefixes, for a right to left reading, op if it be posed by the direction of this katun-number series
one.
We
In Egyptian writing, of course, the direction of the read ing changes with the facing of the figures. To return now to the columns themselves, all the day-signs in any one column have each the same red numeral, so that we
have 8 Cib, 8 Ahau, 8 Kan, 8 Lamat, 8 Eb; and so on. The red numerals to each column also decrease by 2 towards the If we read each right, pari passu with the blue numerals.
:
column downwards,
it
will
form a closed
circuit or round, re
turning into itself, with intervals of 104 days, from 8 Cib to 8 Ahau, etc., and again from 8 Eb back to 8 Cib. But if we
next try to go to the next column, the series breaks, for from 8 Eb to 6 Lamat is only 76 days. We get a like break whether
we
read upward or downward, or right to left. Taking the columns separately then, the entire series (whether made up of 13, 20 or any other number of columns) cannot be made to read in one regular series, with a constant interval between the
making 13 columns, and then read horizontally across, either right to left, or left to right, one line after another, the first day of the second line follows the last of the first, and after going through the whole
65 terms,
first
successive days of the whole. But, if we restore two columns,
we
of the
first
return again from the last of the last line to the always with a constant interval. In other
words, this section could be written around a wheel. If we read left to right, the distance from (10 Kan) to 8 Cib, etc., is 232 days; 232x65 = 15,080. Or if from right to left,* the
* Dr.
Seler
reading;
Gesammelte Abhandlungen,
I,
515.
34
interval from (12 Lamat) to 1 Cib, etc., is 28 days; 28 x 13 = 364, x 5 = 1820. That both of these products are multiples of 260 is a truism, and cannot in any way require us to see a
tonalamatl reckoning as the basis of this passage. Nor is each separate clay-column a tonalamatl in fifths, as so often found.
Finally, if we should assume that the series went on across page 25, to a full katun-round of 20 terms, the circuit would
The
be broken; line 2 would not regularly follow line 1, and so on. probabilities then, as derived from the succession of the
days, seem almost conclusive that this is a section of 65 terms, to be read horizontally, in whichever direction. And then, since the subdivision of 15,080 days (or 1820, if read right to
left) into
65 terms, necessarily gives us successive day-numbers
decreasing (or increasing) by 2, the likeness to the katun-series a simple truism. Or, on the other may be only apparent hand, in view of the glyph similarities (a point which I think
relation to the katun-series
left-right difficulties. * number series part the blue plays, I cannot say. Dr. Seler,f suggests that they are corrections," to set each term ahead 20 days. This states a fact, but does not give any
should always be given close attention), there may be some all in spite of the right-left or
What
"
explanation.
Each blue number
is
less
than
its
red column,
and 7 Kan
is
of course 20 days later than 13 Kan.
* The blue is a true blue, quite distinct from the turquoise blue elsewhere, and is found in the case of these numbers only. t Gcsammeltc Abhandlungen,
"
I,
515;
Zur mexik.
Chronologic."
35
THE MAYA GLYPHS

knowledge of the meanings of the glyphs is and purposes limited to the direct tradition we have through Landa, and the deductions immediately in volved in these. We know the day and month signs, the num and 20, four units of the archaic calendar bers, including count (the day, tun, katun and cycle), the cardinal point signs, the negative particle. We have not fully solved the uinal or month sign, which seems to be chuen on the monuments and a
to date our
still
UP
to all intents
cauac, or chuen, in the manuscripts.
We
what must be regarded as metaphysical or
are able to identify esoteric applications
of certain glyphs in certain places, such as the face numerals.* But every one of these points is either deducible directly by
necessary mathematical calculation, or else from the names of

certain signs given
by Landa
in his
day and month
list,
and
then found in other combinations, such as yax, kin, etc. That we have as many of the points as we have, and still cannot form from them the key that we cannot read the glyphs
is
a constant wonder
but a fact nevertheless.
The innumerable
efforts to identify the glyphs
by
their su
"
perficial appearance, calling the banded headdress a pottery decoration," and explaining the face-glyph of the North there
by, because in
Maya xaman
is
north and
(to say nothing of others

this instance
ficial
still
writers), have broken down, as
xamach a tortilla dish more fanciful, by a host of was to be expected. I mention
it illustrates fully the results of super united with a seeming ineradicable tendency analysis, even among those most able students who have added the
because
most
to our stock of Maya knowledge (among whom Dr. Brinton was certainly one of the foremost), to treat these glyphs as carelessly done, to disregard the differences between manifest variants, or else to talk freely, whenever a passage
* The Tibetan use of symbolical words in place of numerals is worth noting here, even though we do not know the Maya face numerals well enough as yet for any comparison. See Csoma de Koros, Tibetan Grammar, Calcutta, 1824, pp. 155 et seq.; also Ph. fid. Foucaux,
Grammaire
Tibetaine, Paris, 1858, pp. 157 et seq.
36
does not
In the
fit

the explanation which
is
being worked out, of
scribal errors.
first place, if these glyphs are to be interpreted prim by the Yucatecan Maya dialect (one in which we have most ample printed and MS. lexicographic material), and if in that dialect no other words at all resembling .vaman and
arily
xamach
are found, as
we
the north star, or the North, by a
are told, then (if the Mayas named pun on a tortilla dish)
is
wherever
this
banded headdress
found,
we must assume
;
the
That text to be treating either of the North, or of tortillas. might safely be left to break down of its own weight but we
shall also see that the explanation is given in total disregard
of manifest, important variants.

pears ornamenting
five
This banded headdress ap
at least
separate and distinct faces one a wholly human face, the others with various other
;
most frequent and prominent of which are the monkey-like face and mouth we see in the glyph for the north, and a sort of bird s plumage cov ering the back of the head. These two are separate, are never combined, and must be classified rigidly apart. We have therefore three elements, the monkey face, the plumage covering (if we may call it so), and the banded headdress. It
definite characteristics, the
obvious that while the monkey face may be specific of the North, the bands are not specific at all, but general.
is
with the greatest diffidence that I suggest any interpre tations on my own part as yet, but it is of course certain that
It is
the distinction of masculine and feminine existed in the spoken language, and it must exist somewhere in the glyphs. And it
will
have
to be a prefix, not a postfix
for
what
may
call
the
syntax of glyph formation must follow that of the speech. At the bottom of Dres. 61 and 62 are seven identical Oc-glyphs
with subfix, and with prefixes. Five of these prefixes are faces with the woman s curl, recognized on the figured illustrations.
One
this
is
a face with the banded headdress.
headdress occurs not infrequently on a plain

it
Remembering that human face

it
with no other characteristic,
is
not a far guess that
may
37
have denoted a freeman, a lord, entitled to such a headdress. In this event it may on the one hand serve as a simple mascu line definitive, the prefix ah-, and on the other, to attach the
as idea of lordship to other glyphs with which it is incorporated, the North Star, or region, the Lord of the Firmament. This illustration serves to show what seems to me an essen
:
tial
preliminary of the
I
work we have
in hand,
and the part to
which
have so far devoted most
effort.
The glyphs must be
determined, compared and classified, and what I have called the "syntax" of their composition, studied. The particles and
their positions, the various incorporated elements, are of the
utmost importance, though they are very frequently ignored.

guage.
They are the written picture of the spirit of the spoken lan The task I have most looked forward to in this con
nexion has of course been with the Dresden, but having started upon the Perez for the reasons I have given, it was a smaller
task in
itself,
and could be brought
to completion within less
time, while serving as part of the larger work. As the deter mination and classification of the glyphs had to proceed all as one work, it has enabled me not only to complete my Index
for this codex, but also to print the text in type, and to verify and bring out such facts regarding the color questions as was both of them stages needed in the general possible to do work. In doing it I have studied with my hands as well as with eyes, and I have been well repaid. The actual labor has not been small, but it has been worth it all if only to see before the eyes something of what this Codex must have been when fresh and new. For as I have said, while in my colored restor ation I may have made some mistakes of eye, for which the photographs will be a check, I have guessed nothing. The classification of the glyphs meets of course with some
difficulties
in detail,
but
simple general outline.
can readily be cast into a quite Something over 2000 different com
it
pound forms are found in the three codices. The simple ele ments composing these are perhaps 350 in number, and may be divided broadly into main elements and affixes or particles. First of course come day and month signs, which, with kin,
38
tun, kal,
will

and a few marked variants, use up 50 numbers.
Next
the faces, about 75 simple elements. Next the ani mal and bird heads and figures, about 50 numbers. Next the
come
hands, crosses, etc., and the list of conventional or geometric forms, another 75. Then some 75 particles.
The cards required for the first 50 numbers, including only compounds formed from day-signs and excluding day-signs used simply as such, amount to practically one half of the number required for the whole index. Certain elements, not
ably the kin, the tun, the monkey-face with banded headdress, already referred to, the face with tau-eye, the yax, the cross,
produce a great number of compounds

evident that the
a fact of note, as
it is
number of compounds, having due regard

is
to
our limited material,
an index to the relative position of the
idea in the Mayan vocabularies. Some of the day-signs pro duce practically no compounds, others a great many. The fall readily into a system of primary and secondary compounds derivatives, by which their relations may be easily studied, and their proportions recognized.
Coming to the distinguishing of variants, one first meets the fact that the three codices differ. The writing of the Dres den and Perez is regular and accurate, the Perez exceedingly
so.
Every
different variant
must here be accounted
for.
In
Tro.-Cort. the writing is crude and careless, so that we have many evident abbreviations which are not genuine variants.
In the next place, certain regular differences occur in this or that glyph or particle, between the forms of the different
manuscripts.
Thus
the Perez uses (TO?)
"d
the others
and so on. A comparison of the compounds shows that these must be the same. The regular variations between the three manuscripts and variations of abbreviation, when well evid
enced,
Q]
may
be eliminated.
The
and
all
series.
many variants, mostly quite simple, checked positively by the use of the form in some dayIx has many forms. There are at least three entirely
Cimi forms fT\ forms of fcVj
:
day-signs have
different
f^~o\
GaTfa
There are found

the closed eye, one
two
different
L^J L^y

of which certainly
different
is
39
Cimi, the other occurs regularly in such compounds (and I think never as a simple day-sign), as to make it necessary to separate it; it has probably
a different meaning entirely
perhaps
that of sleep.
noteworthy technical
line is to
be found in the drawing
of the glyphs. Whereas in the case of the day-signs, faces, and conventional forms in general, certain variations of handwrit
ing, etc., are evidently permitted,
ite lines, in
but only within certain defin

just
some few animal glyphs no two instances are
In other words, the glyphs in general are conventions actual writing ;* but we also have with established meanings
alike.
pictures of birds or animal forms, where the writer is not fol lowing convention, but nature. The freedom of style used in
the latter case only serves to emphasize the conventionality of the former, and to separate the entire system from either pic ture or rebus writing. See the following fish-glyph forms:
These pictures are almost exclusively in uncompounded forms, whereas the conventional glyphs, whether human, animal or
otherwise, are subject to the general rules of incorporation. Writing is a system of conventional forms with established
meanings, corresponding to and reflecting the structure of the spoken language; some picture elements whose value as such
those
has remained either wholly or partly present in the minds of who use them, are not inconsistent with genuine writing when present they add vividness to the writing, and emphasize
;
its
may
combination of picture forms only, ideographic character. be used as means of communication to a certain degree,
but can never constitute writing; that, like speech, must pro vide for the expression of the relationships and categories that make up the structure of language.
* These [the Maya glyphs] do not represent a real script, as is so often- maintained, but are only pictures which have been reduced to the appearance of letters, contracted to a narrow space, made cursive." ! Dr. Eduard Seler, Codex Vaticanus No. 3773, page 65. Well?
"
40

Egyptian writing, which
is
of course true uniting, contains

"
elements of every class. It has symbols and also pictures, not contracted only of things or creatures, but of actions as well,
to a
still
narrow space, made cursive these pictures, although they can be proranking as such, stand for words nounccd, and have syntax, which is the crucial test. Egyptian next has unrecognizable forms, whose meaning has become a
"
simple convention, but which still stand for ivords, or particles. It has elements which are not pronounced for themselves, but only serve as determinatives. (Such a use of determinatives
is not limited to hieroglyphic writing, but is possessed also by alphabetic ; the second o in the word too is strictly a determin ative, to distinguish the adverb too from the preposition to,
both pronounced alike. Tibetan has an elaborate system of silent letters used as grammatical determinatives.) And then
Egyptian writing
finally
I
As
last
to
Maya,
think
has pure alphabetic elements. it far more than likely that,
when
at
deciphered, it will be found to contain most if not all of mutatis mutandis. There seems every evidence these classes
that
it is
made up
of pictures with probably both concrete and
abstract meanings;
ticles.
word-conventions; and grammatical par probable that there are also silent determ inatives and not unlikely that there is also a pure phonetic or
It is at least
one
alphabetic element. may I think be
That the
latter
element
is
not the basic
now regarded
as established.
CONCLUSION
Introite,
nam
et hie dii sunt.
not my desire to add, as a conclusion to a comment on the restoration and interpretation of Mayan hiero bearing glyphic texts, any general discussion of the data which tradition and the early Spanish writers have left us of the mythology, rites and customs of the American races; and still less to run
IT
is
out a line of attractive analogies between isolated instances of their words, symbols or works, with those of any of the various
nations of the other hemisphere nor to build up any theory of descent or intercourse with any of these latter as today known to history. The subject before us is on its very face too vast; the written and traditional data are entirely too scanty and
;
little understood; and while we are still obliged to desig nate the various gods and personages of the Codices as god A, B, etc., and are unable to fix definitely* a single inscribed date in
too
the Chilam Balam Calendars, C. P. Bowditch, of the Chronicles render the questions con nected with Ahpula s death exceedingly difficult. For instance, the im mediate context in the books of Mani and Tizimin make the date 1536, as given in numerals, an impossible one. But, if the date as given in Maya terms is to be accepted at all (and it certainly is too specific to be rejected), then by the long count such a date must have been either 1502, 5350, or 12,786 years after the date of Stela 9, Copan. Mr. Bowditch favors the lower figure, chiefly because it is the lower, and thus puts Stela 9 at A. D. 34. To get this date the longest possible distance from Ahpula s death to the end of the katun must be used that is, 6 tuns short must be taken to mean almost 7 tuns short." I can only say here that if, in correcting the figures 1536, as demanded by the immediate context, we make the simplest possible correction, and put them one katun earlier, 1516, and then take as the unexpired time to the end of the katun the shortest of the three terms given as possible, or 5 tuns 139 days, bringing the end of Katun 13-Ahau on Jan. 28, 1522, we not only bring the end of Katun 11-Ahau within the year 1541, as is most positively stated by the practically contemporary Pech Chron icle, but we also bring in line nearly all the important events of the Chronicles, from the fall of Mayapan, ca. 1450, the coming of the Spaniards, and the smallpox, in 11-Ahau (1521 to 1541). the conversion to Christianity in 9-Ahau, down to Landa s death (1579) in 7-Ahau; as well as many outside references. Any other combination requires harsher emendations somewhere else. But the above choice of the term of 5 tuns 139 days, thus seemingly called for, means that Stela 9 at Copan is dated, by the long count, 5350 years before Ahpula s death, or B. c. 3824. Whether this is right, is a question for the future.
1901.
"
"
* See
Memoranda on The obscurities
"
42

tell
terms of our chronology, or
the event attached to
it,
fancied
"
comparisons amount to method is more fragile
little.
And
the favorite
"
linguistic
yet, especially
when
the uncertainties
of spelling and transliteration are considered, and above all the frequent total ignorance of the past history and changes the
different
words compared must have gone through
since the
time
possibility a physical transmission from one to the other could have taken place. These ought to locality be commonplaces of research, but it is to be feared that they
when by any
have not quite yet become
There is no need to give in so.* stances of such false analogies which have served as the bases for a multitude of filiation theories, all equally well support
" "
mutually exclusive. Nor on the other hand can we deny the existence actually of a very great num ber of resemblances and identities which cannot be ignored,
ed
by
details,
and
all
is
but must imply connexions of some kind. The English nation not a Hebrew people because it had a prime minister Disraeli,
nor Greeks because they have a Queen Alexandra, nor Romans because of certain local names. Such facts even when real, and
established as such,
may
only be evidence of a single contin
ental culture or transcontinental intercourse.

It
has been the dictum of a certain school of archaeology,
* In ethnology however one troubles oneself little with the detail of It is held quite sufficient to gather from different linguistic structure. peoples and collate a couple of hundred vocables, into whose actual
"
all insight is lacking, and then upon dubious, often purely super and apparent similarities, to deduce linguistic affinities. Or else, as is now most in fashion, the claims of linguistic research towards the solution of ethnological questions are reduced to a most modest share somewhat more in line with natural in comparison with other fields meanwhile pointing for justification to the absurdities set sciences
nature
ficial
The forth as the results of too far-fetched linguistic deductions. errors and sophistries charged against ethnological linguistics are rather an accidental result of the individuality of single investigators, than essential to the subject. They are at least scarcely greater than those brief glance at the strange to the credit of recent Anthropometry. changes of opinion in the latter field during the last three decades, in spite of all its boasted figures, shows how little ground it has to throw stones. Serious students, such as Wallace and Dall, whose critical ability in Zoomorphology no one can deny, and who do not rest con tent with a few skulls of doubtful provenance, gathered a la Hagenbeck, have come to a wholly negative view of the value of Cranio Dr. Otto Stoll, Maya-Sprachcn dcr Pokom-Gruppe, I, vii, ix. metry."
.
43
still very much in general favor, that all these identities are to be explained as the natural result of the innate tendencies of untutored men, on their evolutionary rise, at certain cultural
stages, to imagine the
same myths and invent the same

wholly dissent;
it
rites.
From
this as a principle I
facts.
simply does not
meet the
There are of course many
facts to
which
it
does apply, such as those that both Chinese and Americans made paper, tanned leather, made feather ornaments, used star and flower names for their children, and so on: facts
which had been used to prove Chinese and American identity, and to which Dr. Brinton justly added in retort that they also But slept at night, wore clothes when it was cold, and so on.
there
is
a very great
number of
facts, a
growing with research, which cannot be so dismissed.
number constantly Such
are the employment of abstract symbolism, the erection of great structures all having a definite and identical astronomical
bearing and evident use, the common possession of so-called myths all telling the one story, and only slightly modified locally, such as the birth-stories of Huitzilopochtli and of
the
Herakles, and the stories of the travail of Latona pursued by Python and of the Woman clothed with the Sun in Revel
or the universal tradition of seven ancestral caves or
in
ation;
cities
stories of the seven lotus-leaves of Sveta-dvipa, the first
America, compared with the Tibetan and Puranic con

the race
;
tinental
home of
the
Hacha de
cobre of the Miztecs
and the ever-turning spear of jade of the Japanese story of the place where the gods first descended on earth or the whole question of the origin of the Zodiac. These things, and a host of others, need a different explanation all the more since the more we are learning of them the more we find that they enclose facts of which the hypothetical savage children could not, ex hypothesi, have been aware some facts indeed which our very latest modern science is only now learning.*
;
"
"
that these things
present day speculators never seem to think for a moment may conceal, and thereby preserve, some real meaning, more than nonsense. The theory of mythological interpretation pushed to such extremes as in the animistic explanations of Weber, Keightley, and others, and not absent from the writings of some
Our
or be
"
"
44

"
But while dissenting now wholly from this theory (of coincidentalism one cannot but hold in all respect those who
"),
in their time held
it.
It
is
the duty of the savant to
make
the best logical use he can of what he has, and he cannot be criticised for not using finer scales than the time affords. And
this theory was needed as an answer to the absurdities, brought out in utter disregard of physical possibilities, postulating off
hand migrations and
filiations and evolutionary advances to within the periods allowed for their completion, tally impossible and utterly without parallel in any known part of the world or page of history. And yet, when this theory had its birth, the
most of Christendom was
still
enthralled by the Ussherian
chronology of the creation and history of the whole divine universe, which simply did not have room in it for all these
things to happen naturally and connectedly. And if it is urged that present science had already say a generation ago, a second s time we might say in the life of
humanity, begun to emancipate our ideas of time and evolution, still it is the fact that that increase in breadth of vision has
so far applied to every known thing but man himself. The old belief that gave the world 6000 years of life, at least put
thinking man at its beginning the modern nightmare gives us a world for hundreds of millions of years without thought, and makes human civilization an ephemeral episode of a few
;
Disregarding, one is forced to the fact that every single one of their own argu say wilfully, ments in favor of anthropoid descent for man would equally
seconds of universal duration.
Americanists (namely, that it was all nothing but ridiculous or con cocted fancy, taken soberly) is bad enough, and argues little breadth or insight, when applied to the myths of a single people, considered alone. Applied to comparative mythology, in the state of things today, it is simply impossible. The plain fact is, that such identities as these must indicate one of two things a common tradition, locally modified by circumstances or a fact in nature or history, symbolically expressed in different ways according to the times and modes. And it most prob ably indicates both of these. It is indeed hard to account for the ex tent, and the weight given to some of these myths," now that we are coming to a better appreciation of the scope and greatness of ancient civilizations except they do correspond to actual facts everywhere in nature and history. And it might be worth our while to get at some of these.
:
"
45
human
support a theory that the anthropoids are debased offshoots of stocks,* biology still demands such a lapse of time for
its physical evolution that its adherents oppose and belittle to the utmost every bit of evidence of any antiquity even for the have, to say nothing of the rest physical frame of man.
We
of the world, Egyptian civilization years, and (together with others as

as far
now pushed back 10,000 we slowly uncover them)
removed as ever from barbarism, if not indeed growing but we are not allowed anything but greater as we go back apelike, half arboreal savages 50,000 years ago. And yet every observed fact shows us savage or worn-out races everywhere
;
throughout the world deteriorating and dying out, and nowhere any savages progressing or, unaided by outside influence, de
see everywhere the veloping what we know as civilization. rise and fall of nations, races and civilizations, and their utter
We
blotting out; and we refuse to accept that process as a uni versal law through which the destiny of the human race is
working
the
itself out.
In
fact,
we do
it
not seem to believe that
human
race has any destiny;
may have
beginning and
an end, but no destiny.
And
so although this
modern
scientific school
began as a
reaction against the narrowness of theological limitations, both of time and greatness, so hampered and hypnotized has our
thought been by both, that

*
man
is
of nearly as
little
universal
might just as well acknowledge, once for all, that in spite of present-day currency in England and America, and its pre-emption science for the people," the theory of man s physical of the field of and mental descent from the anthropoids, is not only not proved, but is vehemently denied by an equally able and scientific, and withal more To logical, body of researchers than those who form its supporters. fabricate a missing link in a chain (or even, as with Haeckel, several links), whose only authority is acknowledged to be its necessity in order to complete the evidence for the theory, and then to declare the theory proved because the fabricated link fits perfectly the gap it was created for, is equally vicious scientifically whether the fabrication be the work of a physicist of renown or a linguistic theorizer. Let it simply be agreed, as it now is by all science, that the evolution of form is a universal and well evidenced principle, working out through the various well established and comprehensible incidents, such as natural selection, adaptation to environment, and so on yet this statement of the fact is not an explanation of its cause. And every scientific and logical requirement will be equally, and better, met by regarding all
its
"
We
46
account with one as with the other, and we find a seemingly devel ineradicable repugnance to admit that any people had
"
oped
writing before the least possible time ago we can fix it, usually this side of the year 1 of the Christian era. And thus
"
we have M.
"
writings as many fragments of one or a few great stocks of ancient hieroglyphs. Of course it is impossible to derive the American races or civilizations from the Chinese, Phoenicians, Hittites,
450 embryo scripts and Terrien de Lacouperie s which another fifty years may show to be nearly
"
or any of the cultures of the other hemisphere, if we limit the latter to what we know of their history within the past two or three thousand odd years, and American civilization to the
than that
past fifteen hundred years. just as man is
The matter is somewhat greater somewhat greater than a fool of

this question of
natural caprice.
There
is
one point from which
American
forms, whether physical, linguistic, or of any kind, as coming, or rather brought, into being by the force of a consciousness which needs them That this is absolutely true as the vehicles of its expanding activity. That it is true in every department of in language, anybody can see. daily life about us, everybody does see. That it should be equally true in biology and physics, would not affect the standing or verity of a single observed fact. There was, along about the beginning of the Christian era, and for some time before and after, a very curious movement, which seemed to spread itself over nearly the entire world, east and west. It is told of the early Aztecs that they destroyed the records of their prede It is related that cessors, in order to increase their own prestige." writing once existed in Peru, but was entirely wiped out, and the Inca records committed to quipus alone. The un burning of the books der Tsin Chi Hwangti in B. c. 213 sought to do the same for China. The times of Akbar witnessed much of the same in India. And in Europe almost nothing was left to tell the tale of the great pre-Christian eastern empires and systems of thought so that from the establish ment of State Christianity under Constantine, and the final settlement of the Canon at the Council of Nicaea, an impenetrable veil was drawn over the achievements and greatness of the Past, and all connexion therewith broken off. It was some time after this that we find the heliocentric theory, as well as that of other habitable worlds, denied would deprive the Earth of its unique and (in Europe), because central eminence." Just as we also today are served up with prehistoric savage and animal ancestors, to the greater glory of our own presentday magnificence. But it really is in sober truth only a question of mental perspective which does not affect the facts of history, biology, archaeology or language in the least. It is only a question of which end of the telescope we look through.
"
" "
"it

origins, at least of
ization,
47
American place
its
in
human
lines,
society
and
civil
can be studied in
broader
even with what
materials
we
have.
It
these other matters
we
All that of language in general. have touched upon are necessary fac
is
evolution, and the position of America cannot be considered apart from them, and all of them. But Language touches both the glyphs directly and also all these other things, and is itself of surpassing interest and
tors in the question of
human
importance as a
human
study.
Language is man himself, and it Without it man is not man, a Selfcertainly is civilization. It is, as von Humboldt laid expressing and social being. down, not an act but an activity, or energy, not a thing done,
From one
point of view
but a doing. It is the constant effort of the conscious self to formulate thought. It is the use of the energy of creation,
of objectivation, a veritable many-colored rainbow bridge be tween the inner or higher man and the outer or lower worlds.
And
man
it
is
not only the expression of

it is
Man
as man, but in
its
varied forms
or body
the inevitable and living expression of each of men at any and every point of time. Itself
boundless as an ocean,
it is in its infinite forms and streams and colors and sounds, the faithful and exact exponent both of the sources and channels by which it has come, and of the banks in which it is held, racial, national or individual. It is
living or dead, forceful or

flat,
weak, pure or foul, refreshing or healing or poisonous. It limits us, but yields to our force. Every word or form comes to us with the thought impress
of every
man
we
or nation that has used or molded

it
it
before us.
We
must take
as
is
as
it
selves
thought
pass it aflame, whether as nation or individual,

it,
comes, but we give it something of our on. If our intellectual and spiritual
we may
form and arrange the power energize give purify and we have a new literature, a new and atoms around it
it,
it
to
beneficent, creative social vehicle of intercourse,
mutual under and human unification. Or if our mental or spiritual standing, life is stale, and petty, or egoistic, or seeking for enjoyment
48

;
only rather than action
if
we have
nothing in us to give the
words and forms we use, but only some national force left to use and play with them, we for a while refine, and paint, and petti fy, and elaborate into meaningless subtleties of form, every one of which in turn reacts upon our mental and spir itual life, distracting and enchaining us, until at last the nation for neither can live without the and its language die out
;
other.
evident that the criterion of the perfectness of not to be found in a comparison of its forms any language or methods with those of any other, but in its fitness as a
it
Now
is
is
vehicle for the expression of deeper life, of the best and the greatest that is in those who use it, and above all in its ability
and stimulate newer and yet greater mental and spir and expression. The force behind man, demand ing expression through him, and him only, into the human life of all, is infinite of necessity infinite. There is no limit, nor ever has been any limit, to what man may bring down into the dignifying, broadening and enriching of human life and evolu tion, save in his own ability to comprehend, express, and live it. And the brightness and cleanness of the tools whereby he form ulates his thought, as well as the worthiness and fitness of the substance and the forms into which he shapes it for others to For such is the economy of see, are the essentials of his craft. nature, which wastes nothing in reality, that a fit vehicle will be taken possession of by its own tenant and the unfit left to and be taken by those who can use no better. Before, then, taking up the great formal classes into which
to react
itual activity
;
language at large is usually divided, it will be necessary to say a few words as to the foundations of form itself in language,
that
we may
then proceed to consider these classes from the
standpoint of their inner meaning rather than solely of the outer form; and by seeking to understand the mental and spiritual equipment and life of those that used them, may per
haps
in
turn be better
fitted finally to
enter into the genius of
their written
them
in
and spoken languages, and to interpret through the detail more of the ideas which those forms were
COMMENTARY ON
both
THE) PEREZ CODEX
fitted and used to express. Such a method is essential for the understanding of any language or culture, but it is absolutely necessary in the case of these non-Aryan tongues,
and thought which separ out to compare the forms by which they expressed their thought with those within which we
so great
is
the distance both of time

If
ates us
from them.
we
set
develop ours, or approach these cultures and peoples in the attitude of alien criticism, study their interesting ways
"
"
through a mental lorgnette and impale their dead forms on the needles of our collection, we shall not only show ourselves less broad in culture than many of them, but we shall simply
and lock the doors of discrimination and understanding The question is not, How do their forms and ways appeal to us? but, How did those forms, and ways, achieve their underlying objects, and what was the thought behind them? Life is action, and without activity whatever powers lie
close
before us.
within any conscious being are only potential. Activity is the bridge between the inner man and the outer world, by which
he impresses his thought, in forms, on chaos or the atoms about him, receiving in return increased knowledge and exper ience of all he touches, and knowledge of himself through the
results of his own actions; and it is the bridge between man and man. For this reason the verb, the word of action, is the most important and most developed part of speech. The three hypostases of life, as of language, are the self, activity, and the world and it is for the expression of all the possible varied relations between these three, that all the forms of any lan guage come into being. And from the way in which these forms are developed, and the relative importance which is given to this or that form of thought or activity, the character of the people, their grasp of nature, and their own conception of themselves and their relation to the world, can be seen.*
;
the appearance
exceedingly interesting to trace the course of criticism since of Wilhelm von Humboldt s great work, Ueber die Verschicdenhcit des tnenschlichen Sprachbaucs und ihren Einfluss auf die geistige Entwickelung des Menschengeschlechts (Berlin, 1836). Dr. Brinton gave it most unqualified approval; (see especially his monois
* It
50
Some languages have the strong impress of impersonality, others are strongly egotistic and without any loss of virility
;
self-assertive,
with perhaps the braggart
lack
of genuine
Each spoken language that we know has its own strength. color and tone, to which our thought must respond, if we would know and use it well. To speak good Swedish, for
instance, requires clear thinking to
show
lish
this,
the
form
is
"
come
hit,
here,"
an exceptional degree. To which is the ordinary Eng

in
expression,
simply bad
grammar
but
Swedish; the use

ha r)
is
of
"
come
hither"
"
(kom
"
instead of
kom
it
imperative.
stilted,
We
have the
hither
in English,
has become
and the
linguistic distinction lost.

;
as a common auxiliary Also to enunciate the lan contrary, characteristic examples. guage rightly one must hold the back and neck erect and the
also the use of fa, nor are these exceptions, but, on the
Compare
muscles firm.
graph read before the American Philosophical Society in 1885, and Prof. H. Steinthal (Grammatik, Logik and printed the same year). inner form the most import Psychologic, 1855) calls the subject of ant one in linguistic science, and von Humboldt s treatment of it his But the work has greatest contribution to that science. And so on.
"
"
nevertheless received little attention from a large number of writers, unclear." These two views, when one most of them declaring it studies the various writers, seem to follow closely upon the stand Those who study points from which each approaches the study. language (perhaps one should here say, languages) as a phenomenon, a set of external forms, an act, a thing done, get little use out of von Humboldt s work. Those who see it as a human activity," an energy, get much. This is quite apparent in one of the clearest and ablest linguistic works which has recently appeared, Dr. Adolf Noreen s Vart Sprak (in 9 vols., still in course of publication, Lund, 1903 and later), a work of far wider linguistic value than appears from its title. Dr. Noreen, however, dismisses von Humboldt s work, and the sub ject of "inner form," with a few pages, and the results are apparent in several interesting points. In the first place, in the course of an acute and critical analysis, wherein he shows that the purpose of speech is not simply expression of thoughts or ideas, but the com munication to some other person of the knowledge of the ideas so held by the speaker, he goes on to say the same knowledge of A s wishes could be as well communicated by his saying I want you to come as by his saying just Come. This is quite true; but the energic effect is quite different. Language is the bridge from man to man, and it is also a creative activity of man. Of course Dr. Noreen, in a later volume, where he most lucidly analyses the terms words, forms, and concepts, etc. (ord, morfcm. scmcm, etc.), and corrects many errors of definition made by his predecessors, acknowledges the
" " "
"
51
In some languages the speaker thinks of himself and his completed action as inseparable, as a single idea, as the Latin edi for I have eaten; in others he thinks of himself subcon
sciously as possessing the results of his action, as our / have eaten; and in others, as among the Irish peasantry, he separ
ates himself
and
his action entirely, as /
am
after eating.
In
Maya, the verbal concept starts with the past; in others, as our own, we live in the present; in the Welsh, the future is the chief tense. The mere choice of shall
as in
some grammars,
or
7C-J//
as the first person future auxiliary denotes a specific
mental quality.
Now
in
tionship between the
the expression of all these infinite shades of relationself, the activity and the world, is achieved
:
two ways
Monosyllabic, Agglutinative, Incorporating, and Inflectional, and this division It is will suit our purpose, though it must be used with care.
held in the ordinary theory that these classes must represent successive stages of linguistic perfection, each in turn being
The customary
position or placement division of languages
syntax
is
and form.
into
higher in the scale than the other, they having grown one from the other as the race advanced. By the theory the monosyllastill his whole admirable work, difference between the two forms and critical as it is, is devoted to this phase of language as a mere phenomenon, a set of forms which serve as a medium of com munication. From this standpoint, we know all there is to know about language when we have classified its forms. But from the other, the study is ever leading us into the regions and depths of man s con and the sciousness, his creative activity as it goes out to the world can hence only be a true definition of language, from this position,
;
analytical
"
one." (von Humboldt, Gesammelte Werke, VI, 42) further not unworthy of note that, except where directly re quired in treating of verbal categories, nearly all of the enormous number of illustrations which Dr. Noreen chooses for his points, are nouns, names of things, and vary rarely verbal forms, words of action and doing. But it is simply a fact that all the potency of language is in the verb, and almost all there is of language, in a philosophic sense, lies there. The verb is the bridge of communication and action upon external things, just as is language itself, going out of man. And it is also noteworthy that the recognition of this position of the verb, together with these other matters of which we are speaking, seems nearer at hand and clearer to those students who are led beyond Aryan languages to the study of American and Asiatic, especially Central and Northern Asiatic. For instance, G. v. d. Gabelentz, Die Sprachwissenschaft, and other works.
genetic
It
is
52
bic
is lower than the agglutinative, and inherently less useful. But the theory does not work out in practical application to the facts we have to deal with, for while we cannot find still left in the world any agglutinative languages representative
of sufficient culture to bring into our present consideration, find a monosyllabic in the highest rank, and meeting the highest cultural requirements. In short, the latter may be
we do
theoretically the inferior tool, but the genius of thought be
hind
is
greater than the form.
One man can draw
a master
piece with a burnt stick, another only paint a daub with all the brushes made. Once again we must not judge by our pre conceived preferences of form.
Omitting therefore the modern remnants of agglutinating languages, outside of America, as affording us no literary ma terial of value for our study, we shall find at once drawn across all the other great classes a single broad line of division, be
tween the ideographic and the

mentioned.
literal
the
And
the
moment we draw
this line as
same as already an exponent
of the mental and spiritual thought-life of the different peo ples, we shall find it not only molding their language forms,
both written and spoken, but manifest as well in their And of course philosophy, and even their social polity.
art,
we
must be
in
our comparisons, and not set a Chinese coolie the concrete against an English statesman, nor any concrete
fair in
example of another kind of culture in its decay with the highest bloom to which we believe our own type to be able
to carry us.
It
is
would be absurd
to say that the ratiocinative, literal
mind
higher than the
ideal.
One man
another of the things, the events and reasons it all out. And contrary to many of our current be he sees at a flash liefs, the former is often the man of action
;
;
sees directly the situations before him
meaning
and gets things done. His thought, his activity, is vivid and his words are likely to be so as well. The idealist, if he be broadminded, and not merely sentimental, And the type of mind is indeed likely to be the practical man.
to the heart of the matter,
;
that
is
made manifest
to us
by these great non-Aryan Ian-
53
guages and their forms, is the former. Of course idealism in its decadence becomes negative, inactive, self-consuming and
no longer creative. But in be even more active, more

processes.
its
bloom the
direct vision
may
practical,
than are the reasoned
Much ink and paper has been spent over the question whe ther the Chinese hieroglyphs are ideograms or phonograms, whether the character "T**- for instance, conveys to those idea of Heaven, or the spoken using it primarily the
S\
word
T ien.
It is necessarily both, in a sense
it
would not
be written language otherwise.

letter-combination
And
it is
Heaven
is
in a
way
equally true that the as much to us a picture
of the idea as of the sound; but the difference of procedure

is radical. The glyph is related to the idea directly, the spelled word only through the formal combination of symbols for single vocal speech-elements, meaningless when separate. The
relation of spoken
sound to glyph
so call
it,
is
wholly adventitious; the

is
relation of the idea to the spelled
word
equally adventitious.
The
ascent, if
we
graphic to the alphabetic, is into material forms.* And while
of written speech from the ideo the descent of the thought further
it
may
be (and in the course
of universal evolution rightly so) necessary for our thought to descend into the bondage of matter and form, for its know* It
tion
was not until after this paper was already in type that my atten was directed to the complete agreement of this and the succeeding
sentences with the following passage in The Secret Doctrine, by H. P. Blavatsky, London, 1888, vol. II, page 199. After saying that some of the Atlantean races spoke the agglutinative languages, the passage con While the cream of the Fourth Race gravitated more and tinues more toward the apex of physical and intellectual evolution, thus leav ing as an heirloom to the nascent Fifth (the Aryan) Race the inflec tional, highly developed languages, the agglutinative decayed and re mained as a fragmentary fossil idiom, scattered now, and nearly Note the words I have limited to the aboriginal tribes of America." inflectional languages as an italicized, marking the evolution of the attendant phenomenon on physico-intellectual evolution, compare the passage with von Humboldt s thesis, already quoted, that the incorporative quality denotes an exaltation of the imaginative over the ratiocinative processes of mind in its users, and further with the surviving genius of Chinese, the type of monosyllabic languages, and the agree ment is evident. Von Humboldt, however, did not carry out so fully the archaeological results, for which indeed the materials were in his day still lacking. See also other passages in The Secret Doctrine.
"
"
"
54
ledge and experience, and for the development of matter and form into fitter vehicles of thought, nevertheless the process is a binding and for a time an enchaining one, and the thought
is,
for a time at least, likely to be lost in the confusion of
forms.
Thus we may lay down as our fundamental proposition that a hieroglyphic form of writing is better fitted to, and must properly, in the period of its natural development, accom
pany the imaginative processes of mind.
to our
literal
Or, since imagination thought implies in some degree the fanciful

in essence),
(though wrongly so
that that
we might perhaps
better say
form of writing is the fit attendant and exponent of those functions of mind which cognize the inner meanings of the facts of life directly, rather than those which study them
through the correlation of their phenomena.
And
also, that
the development by any people of an alphabetic out of a hiero glyphic system, does not imply a greater advance in linguistic perfection on their part, but indicates a corresponding mental
and inner change of attitude towards ideas and things, and a different conception of the self as related to them all. It is not at all necessary to assume that the knowledge gained by one method is deeper or more exact than the other. True science may exist as fully under one set of circumstances as the other. If we will take the type of the so-called most
the Chinese, we shall find primitive form, the monosyllabic all this evidenced in the clearest manner. To note but one
a study of the scientific and philosophical ideas involved in and conveyed by the word k ung, for Space, ether,
illustration,
the fundamental substratum of sound or vibration, as well as the "interetheric" central point of balance and power, will dis
close an understanding that has nothing to fear
from modern
comparisons.
And
ment of
speech
the very fact that Chinese has had to depend on place its monosyllables to express all the relations for which
is called upon, instead of relying on changes of form, seems to have, and indeed has so stimulated the development of pure linguistic power that the language is actually as per-

feet
55
and clear a medium of cultured and learned intercourse, the Sanskrit, the supreme type of the so-called most de veloped form, the inflectional. And by reason of its possession of the ideographic element it has a vividness which the San skrit has not. No language can be a highly developed one which does not provide in some way for the expression of all possible needed relations between the three fundamental pos the self, the action and the tulates of life and activity world and Chinese does this in spite of its monosyllabic struc
as
is
;
And it ture by the development of its syntax of position. be remembered further that Chinese syntax, in strict should
correspondence to the genius of the language, is not the same formal thing that syntax is with our inflectional tongues, but includes, or rather is primarily based on the harmonic adjust
the inherent basic ideas of or within the words. The Chinese monosyllables are then not the naked separate things they are in the dictionary, but the whole phrase or sentence
ment of
is
on the contrary as much a unit as one of ours; and often

so.
more
This integral unity of the whole sentence or expression, dominated by a perspective of ideas rather than of forms,
which
is
is
achieved in Chinese by the elaboration of placement,

but, these languages being polysyllabic,
also characteristic of the structure of the languages of the
American continent;
the vividness and unity are attained by a method described as Incorporation, whereby the accessories of relation are so in
cluded in or attached to the leading word that the whole ex pression assumes the form and sound of a single word. And a similar process takes place with the various elements of
a compound sentence. So that although this one of the divis ions of language approaches very closely to the Inflectional in
its external forms, it yet has held to the vividness and essential characteristics of the ideographic method. And it is a point of the utmost importance for the decipherment of the Maya
glyphs, to note as has been stated before, that their syntax of combination must follow that of the spoken language, which
we know.
56

There
is
one broad
line
of division marking
all
the lan
guages and civilizations of the world
the line between the
ideographic and the literal; it marks the use of hieroglyphic or of alphabetic writing, and it denotes a culture so widely
from ours, modes of thought so distinct, views of life s relation to it one might almost say so opposite to ours, as to point unmistakably to a most distant past, and a
different
and man
former world-culture probably as wide-spread in its day as is ours or more so. And it is one of the strangest and most remarkable of the phenomena we are considering, that the two divisions have overlapped each other in time to such a degree that whereas we have in Sanskrit, the most perfect
now
type of Aryan, or inflectional languages, the oldest of them all; on the other hand we have in Chinese an equally perfect linguistic medium of the other type, kept alive into our own
times.
When we
ican civilizations
consider the development and status of the Amer which have been revealed to us, and especially
to the possibility that
when we have once opened our minds
world-civilizations different in their time
from ours
in ours,
may
for
all
we know have
existed and been blotted out ages
ago, leaving linguistic traces, and perhaps perpetuating cultural remnants in a few parts of the earth, it is impossible not to recognize the breadth of the problem we are considering. All
over the American continent at the time of the Discovery we see cultures and systems whose time had come. Back of most
of the North and South American tribes we find the remains of mighty and utterly extinct civilizations only their dim memory left. In the centers of higher culture from Mexico
to
Peru we see the ancient
to our
own
times
civilization brought further down but there also, in process, all the incidents
of break-up and an expiring greatness. Internecine strife, invasion from outside, changes of center, are all going on, and
all
marked by a steady decrease
in
everything that means civ
ilization.
Of
the ancient mathematical and astronomical
know
ledge a corner of which is revealed to us by the Maya glyph remains, only a distorted fragment appears in the Mexican,
57
where also hieroglyphs have yielded to a cruder rebus-writing. stately and incomparable compositions and architecture of Palenque, Copan and Quirigua have yielded to the ball all this following the courts and local strifes of Chichen Itza
The
very course of changing historical succession preserved in the The later the date, the lower in every case the Chronicles.
this is impossible not to recognize, nor have we traces ; of any different course of events. Of course we see the rise of the Aztec nation, a small cycle, but like the Gothic upon
culture
the
Roman,
it
comes
at
the end of the general
American
an incursion of barbarians settling on and pre serving for us fragments of the culture that preceded them, just as has happened over and over again all over the world. And the same with the Incas in Peru. And yet even the Mex
break-up
ican culture demands our high respect, comparing favorably with European of the same period. Indeed it was actually far ahead of the latter in matters of education and many points
of polity.
But in spite of its seeming greatness, its heart and energy were gone, just as with Peru, and both yielded to what on the face seems a miracle, but was only the expression of that force which was preparing the American continent for a new The race and civilization, still now only in its beginnings. had already broken up. And even as we write, Mayan empire
the archaeological history of the other hemisphere is being repeated here ; on the heels of Manabi comes the Chimu Val
one with America as with Egypt an up-to-date work on its early his tory, for new discoveries will carry it back further, and to greater scope, before the previous ones can be edited and
ley,
and soon
it
will be
will not be able to print
gotten to press.
Compare
Sharpe
s history,
the few pages of earliest Egypt in with Flinders Petrie s work of a decade or
so ago, and that with the situation today. It is a simple fact that decipherment and publication all over the world can no longer keep pace with discovery; and
the time has
for archaeology to begin to survey these remnants, engineering works that would tax any modern na-
come
58
tion with all our appliances, vast ruined cities, one above the
other, innumerable languages
and writings, the traces of peo whose very names are lost to history as a whole, and ples to ask itself how long it must have taken for all these works to be accomplished, let alone for the birth and decay of the civilizations that supported them, and gave environment for
the development of such technical skill as could finish the enor mous bulk of the Great Pyramid with an accuracy beyond the fineness of our best instruments to measure. For not only
mere bulk
though there is enough of that scattered over the earth to keep all the possible available craftsmen of the world a wholly incommensurate time achiev ing them, but the ability to conceive and carry out such works. What sort of people leveled Monte Alban for its crown of pyramids, dreamed and executed the stucco modelings of
is
to be considered
Palenque, built the temple of Boro Budur in Java, cut the Bamian statues of the Hindu Kush, and so on, and so on, for
page after page? If they had such appliances as we have, if they must be ranked at least in our class for having them they did them without our great engines, what sort of men were they? And if they could do these things without our
;
appliances,
is
it
have made the
not a fair inference that they could easily tools, or others better perhaps?
One fact is becoming more prominent with every advance of archaeology over the world, a fact of the greatest linguistic interest, namely that ancient civilizations and empires, as a
whole, lasted longer than ours of today.
different
Consider
how many
and successive empires Europe has had in the last 2000 odd years, our history; and how long each of our cul tures has lasted. All of them put together would go into one of these older periods, and have plenty to spare. Passing over what may be the real meaning and bearing of this fact on the problem of universal history and human evolution, and the position of our race today, the linguistic considera tions which follow are most interesting. If the fundamental thesis of language as a human activity is its direct correspondence to and expression of all the inner
59
motives and forces of the users, we have here a key to the survival to our day, an unknown period past its own time, of the Chinese type.
Of the development, modification and decay of languages we have ample material in our own times for study, the periods
over which the modifying forces operate being an equal meas ure of the periods of national activity and change. And,
is perhaps not always sufficiently recognized, we have an elaboration of the formal elements going on under very dif ferent impulses, at different periods of the life of the language.
what
in the history of a people for it to play a part on the world s stage some danger has threatened greater the national life and aroused its energies, or other causes have worked to quicken the mental and spiritual life; an Eliza
:
The time has come
is ushered in, frequently by a forerunner, a Chau and the language responds, its forms develop and are perfected. Or else some fitting or amalgamating force comes in from outside, the life of the people is widened, new blood enters in every sense, and the forms of the language respond. Or perhaps, when they may seem to have come to the tether end of things, and men s minds turn back to older, even pre historic times, seeds long buried and forgotten in the nature spring up, and a true national Renaissance follows. In these cases the change and elaboration of forms is a symptom of new life; the vehicle is being molded and expanded to fit
bethan era
cer,
the growing thought. But it is not always so.
There comes a time when the
outgoing force, the activity of life, wanes and, after a greater or less period of settled conditions, a period of proper use and government of the regions occupied, a change sets in. And
then
again the wholly deceptive phenomenon of linguistic amplification; but it is the false activity of decay. The energy has turned in and begun to feed upon itself. The
tion,
we may have
national impulse has changed from achievement to gratifica more and more sources are drawn upon to minister to
its enjoyment, and that enjoyment becomes an art; forms of every kind are subtly refined in its service, and linguistic forms
60
with them.
And this is then the very period when all these formal elements are pointed to with pride as the material, evidence of culture and progress. The thought-life of the
nation has lost
itself in
the conflict and confusion, in the dis

it
tractions of the
its
forms into which creative force had entered.
has molded the matter

in individuals, a quick or a slow
We
the
have thus
in nations
and languages, as
phenomena of birth, growth, use, and death, all marked by various degrees and
disease,
signs of health or
These are of general average, quite corresponding to those that form the bases for life insurance tables. But, as with
at root
and every one
a moral question.
the
facts
these
latter,
class, locality,
not only are there variations for inheritance, and so on, but there are here and there cases
of out and out exception which from all we can see must be assigned to some external force in operation on the indiv idual. We call them freak occurrences, only because we
"
"
cannot see the wider law or causes at work.
When we
them
in sufficient
numbers, we make new
tables to cover
meet them
as far as we can, again in general only. Other causes still elude us, though they must have a fountain somewhere. have, as great exceptions to our general averages, two opposite phenomena. One is the sudden inexplicable and
We
dazzling rise on the world s stage of a totally insignificant people, the other the seeming arrest for long periods of time of the normal processes of even incipient decay. And touch
ing the latter point, it is strange indeed that in two such widely different cultures as those of Iceland and China we should
find the same law apparently at work; the periods are vastly have no unlike in actual, but not so in relative duration. of properly placing the maintenance of Icelandic and way
We
Chinese as they have been other than by simply laying down the existence of what we may call a Law of Retardation,
whose ultimate causes we cannot fathom or

will stand as
classify, but
which
an opposite phase of the

in
Law
is
of Stimulation,
equally
which
is
more frequent
operation, but
unex
plained.

If
61
we will now regard the languages and cultures of the world, we will find all the phases of linguistic and cultural
with about the same degree of rapidity, all over both hemispheres, save in places protected by our Law of Retardation. We will find the rate of changes and succes
activity, operative
sions generally far less rapid the farther back in time
we
go;
all
and
finally
we
will find a special
and marked acceleration on
both sides of the Atlantic during the last thousand years, incident to the placing of a new race in America.
So for the facts as we find them. They point to the des cent of past American civilizations from a past period of For continental, or far more probably, of world-wide extent. who can imagine that people great enough to build as these
did, should not also
have navigated?
Why
Maya
should
we assume
in the face of other experiences, that
dates and calcul
ations
did not
mean nothing, except on know as much as we
do,
the general principle that they and were doubtless liars?
Bailly proved over a hundred years ago that Hindu exact astronomical observations must date back at least 5000 years,
and that they were in possession of minutely accurate tables * long before Europe was. And the rotundity of the earth was certainly known both to them and the other great nations of
antiquity.
Archaeology is today pushing back the dates of fixed and acknowledged history almost to the date given by the Egyp tians to Solon for the submersion of the great Atlantean is land; and if we can but read the Maya glyphs, and open that
door, another twenty years from now may show us beyond all possible dispute evidences in every part of the earth belt of
a contemporaneous culture, different from and precedent to

the Aryan.
I have so far in this monograph, based upon and having to do as it has with the Maya glyphs, their interpretation and
their place in the linguistic field, limited
myself to an analysis
and consideration of the
facts presented to us
by those
linguis-
* Traite de VAstronomic Indienne et Orientate, Disc. Prel. et seq.
62
tic
and cultural data we have actually before us. But there is one further problem which is suggested by it all. It is this Where, in point of time and place, is the change in the world s linguistic and cultural life from ideographic to literal to be sought for, and what is its rationale? Separated from us by such an enormous period of time as it is, I still cannot believe that some view of it cannot be had. There are various facts
:
history and language, partly of prehistoric of Asia, an analysis of which would extend Europe, partly this paper too far into other fields but apart entirely from
;
of Old
World
the question of myths or traditions, there are various actual observed phenomena both of language and writing, especially in Central Asia, which do not fit into any of the ordinary
this, as a simple linguistic In point of locality, at least, the conclusion agrees with the usual Aryan home theory but as far as concerns
theories,
and which do suggest

" "
conclusion.
this latter
it
must be remembered
that
however
fully
it
demon
strates the unity of the
Aryan
race,
beyond
that fact all ques
tions of dates
and even of the
state of civilization at the time,
are not matters of history as yet for us, but only of theory as to which our present "perspective" may be once more as
faulty as
it
has often been heretofore.*
* The suggestion above is linguistic, and in that phase is given as a corollary to the foregoing discussion but, as stated, it is at the same time in accord with the Aryan theory in its essentials (though not in its hypothetical and ultra-historical speculations), and it also finds confirmation by various passages in The Secret Doctrine, by H. P. The traces of an immense civilization, Blavatsky, as already quoted. even in Central Asia, are still to be found. This civilization is unde The Eastern and Central portions of those niably prehistoric. were once upon a time the Nan-Shan and the Altyn-Tagh regions whole geologi covered with cities that could well vie with Babylon. cal period has swept over the land, since those cities breathed their last, as the mounds of shifting sand, and the sterile and now dead soil of the immense central plains of the basin of Tarim testify. ... In the oasis of Cherchen some 300 human beings represent the relics of about a hundred extinct nations and races the very names of which are now unknown to our ethnologists." (Vol. I, page xxxii ct seq.) See also Col. Prjevalsky s Travels. Why should it not be so? The above was written in 1888, but the evidences are growing every day, and it will be against all archaeological precedent if far-reaching results do not follow from Dr. Stein s small find, and from Capt. d Ollone s recent researches among the Lolos, and the securing by
;
"
"
"

I believe that this
63
in
center of transition lay
somewhere
Central Asia, to the north of the great Himalayan range. That this region was a sort of alembic, a melting-pot (as America is today) for various peoples of an ancient world
wide culture, as broad at least in its scope as the term Aryan is today. That this culture displayed the ideographic traits we have discussed, and that it has left more or less definite
traces at different places in the world. two Americas, in whatever continental
"
That it covered the form they may then have existed, leaving us there les debris echappes a un nauThat coincident with a new and universal frage commun." world-epoch, as wide in its cultural scope as the difference between the ideographic and literal, there was finally formed
a totally
into
new
vehicle for the use of
human
thought, the in
was perfected some great speech, the direct ancestor of Sanskrit, into the forms of which were concentrated all the old power of the ancient hieroglyphs and their underlying concepts. For San
flectional, literal, alphabetic.
That
this vehicle
skrit,
while the oldest
is
also the mightiest of
Aryan gram
mars; and no one who has studied its forms, or heard its speech from educated native mouths, can call it anything but concentrated spiritual power. That the force which went on the one hand into the Sanskrit forms, was on the other per petuated on into the special genius of Chinese, in which, as we know it, we have a retarded survival, not of course of outer form so much as of method and essence. And in Tibetan,
in spite of all that is said to the contrary, I suspect that
we
have a derivative, not from either Chinese or Sanskrit as we know them, but by a medial line from a common point.* Of
him, as we are informed, of the long-sought knowledge of their hieroglyphic system. * The study of Tibetan has so far been approached almost exclusively from the south, that is by those already familiar with Sanskrit and To this fact, as well as to the overwhelming influence exercised Pali. on literary Tibetan by the Buddhist propaganda, is due the difficulty one meets in any study of its origins. The traces, however, do never theless exist. Some interesting facts concerning both Chinese and Tibetan, which seem to be entirely omitted in such later standard works as those of Summers, Wade, and Giles, are to be found in the almost forgotten Chinese Grammar of Dr. Marshman, Serampore, 1814.
64
course the time for such changes must have been enormous; but whatever it was, it was no greater in its realm as time,
than were the mental differences in theirs. And they both are equally human data. Certain other facts point to the American or Atlantic source and center of this ancient epoch. They are briefly that
all
around the Mediterranean basin we
find traces of a
van
ished culture, unknown to our history, and living only in tra dition and some archaeological remains. And of this culture
various investigators, each approaching it from his particular favorite locality, have constructed for us as many different
"
Empires,"
analogies.
One
by theories each supported by various details of calls them Tartars, another Hittites, another
Pelasgians, and so on. And all of them, in each of the theo have as a fact a great many unexplained characteristics, different from those of our historical nations. Some of these
ries,
most markedly the Basque, but also not a few It greater distance, have definite American similarities. not be a far guess that these fragments represent an might eastward movement, which later in the history of the Aryan development met and was pushed back westward again by the fully formed and dominant Aryan race from its Central Asian This is the future province of Archaeology. center.
characteristics,
at
And
opened
am
convinced that the widest door there
is
to be
to this past of the
human
race,
is
that of the
Maya
The narrow limitations of our mental horizon as to glyphs. the greatness and dignity of man, of his past, and of human
were set back widely by Egypt and what she has had to show, and again by the Sanskrit; but the walls are still there, and advances, however rapid, are but gradual. With the reading of America I believe the walls themselves will fall, and a new conception of past history will come.
evolution,
i^s*
ttffc.
RTH
M*
^5c*^Vt.oo
ASP
^g**^**

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LIBRARY

MAR 29 1911 GIFT

Concluding Note upon

With a Concluding Note upon

1910, by William E. Gates

THE ARYAN THIOSOPHICAL PR ESI

University. The data

themselves are the accumulation of the past

The trend of Science

Maya glyphs. for the past thirty years, after taking

and of worthier views.

PEREZ CODEX: PAGE

PEREZ CODEX: PAGE

THE PEREZ CODEX

Mex-Guat. (page 95),

in the library of the

COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX

become scarce. Each of these three

advantages and disad

Coloring exists on the original codex which was not

and the colors given are

cases not exact.

Thus on pages 19 and 20 two

in the introduction to be entirely

instances a close examination of the photographs

Commcntar sur Pariser Mayahandschrift, Danzig,

Forstemann does not know of the existence of

COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX

printed editions, and which

in every case confirmed,

although sometimes with

by the examination of the

able edition of the

Dresden Codex, the actual workers on the

COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX

in the field of the

with privilege of copying.

for Egyptian. therefore been

The type for the made this way.

as clear and distinct as possible.

COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX

lines of the original,

in the central sections

COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX

restoration will further be found a

ions and the

decipherment can decide

COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX

in their exact tints

by water-colors, and with

permanent black, being the parts reproduced

the present edition.

COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX

on the possible katun number

Prior to the examination

of pages 16 and 17.

COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX

Another point on page 17

column, are five blue 3 s. shown in the 1887 edition and in

In the top section, of these blue dots, as

water-colors, have faded

just mentioned, have also

the true one, I cannot say.